A Collar of Pearls
by roses-are-a-weed
Summary: In 'The Serpent’s Pass' Sokka tried to save Toph before Suki could act, changing everything. What starts with them being separated from the group, ends with them in Ba Sing Se, and for Sokka the world will never be the same. READ THE WARNINGS. Zuko/Sokka
1. Prologue

Title: A Collar of Pearls (prologue)  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Author's Notes: Er. Hi. I hope you like.

---

Toph was going to drown. Toph was going to drown unless he did something, right then.

Acting on instinct, without thought, he flung himself into the water, forcing his body through the cold liquid. He could hear Toph calling for help, he could hear fear in her voice, he knew she must be terrified, unable to swim or see what was happening without the ground under her feet. He was almost there when she stopped calling and he felt his heart seize in his chest. She was sinking, drowning, _dying_ if he didn't act now.

He dove under the water, reaching for her, fingers scrabbling in cloth before he managed to grip her and raise her to the surface. She took a deep breath, gasping in air, calling out "Oh Sokka, you-" before they were knocked back under the water by a heave of the beast his sister and Aang were fighting.

The water buffeted them, threw them around like they were seeds in the wind. He lost track of himself, where he was, which way was up and he could feel Toph struggle against the water, against him, and he knew she was losing air. Holding on as best he could he waited for them to pop back to the surface, hoping she'd make it.

Suddenly they emerged back into the outside world, struggling to remain there as the water around them heaved and surged. She was shaking in his arms, coughing and spluttering and small in a way he wasn't used to. Toph was usually larger than life, her personality making up for her small size and he didn't like to see her like this, dazed and diminished.

Looking around he felt another unpleasant reality begin to sink in. They'd been propelled far through the water, back the way they'd come and into the Western lake. He could see Aang and Katara facing down the Serpent quite clearly and just see Suki and the others on the rock of Serpent's Pass, but they were tiny, indistinct. Far, far away.

The beast thrashed again, sending water heaving against them and pushing them back under. Toph didn't even struggle this time, instead curling up against him, pushing her face into his chest, clinging with her strong, capable hands. He did his best to curl around her; he didn't want to lose her, didn't want to be responsible for her drowning.

With a surge they popped back to the surface, even further away than before. Taking a few deep breaths he adjusted his grip on the worryingly compliant Toph and began to swim towards the rock of the Serpent's Pass, it being much closer than the shore of the lake. Hopefully she'd have enough strength the earthbend them out of the water when they reached it. He focussed on his breathing, on moving through the water, on keeping Toph afloat, on the push and pull of the water. He didn't let himself think about anything else.

They'd almost made it, were almost close enough, when the water swelled, heaved, surged against them again and pushed them back down into the deep. He knew they would surface again soon, he _knew_ it, but he could feel the fight starting to go out of Toph and that scared him, terrified him. They just had to hold on, just a little longer...

Suddenly the world seemed to lurch and they were grabbed. Dragged. Pulled further under into a rapidly moving undercurrent that was sucking them down, down, down into the deep.

They were going to drown.

Like someone dragged under the ice. Like the woman who used to take care of them sometimes when he was very young. That woman whose name he couldn't even remember anymore. Toph was struggling in his arms, kicking him, flailing and terrified and they were going to die. Die. Without seeing Aang succeed, without helping, just die in some stupid way for no real reason.

He felt them bang against the rock of the Serpent's pass, felt them dragged into a crack in the stone, felt everything shift around them as Toph reacted without thought; and then the darkness came for him and he felt nothing more.

---

The Avatar and those of his companions that remained were panicking. Searching frantically for their missing members who had been sucked down into the deep. The Avatar was searching by air, flying with his glider, and the Water Tribe woman Katara was searching the water.

It seemed hopeless, and the Avatar and his companions seemed to feel the same way. "Sokka! _Sokka!_ I can't see him! Aang can you see him! _**Sokka!!!!**_" Katara's cries tore at his soul.

His sister clung to his hand as his wife huddled against his side, shaking and crying. He felt guilty, suspected they did too.

Instinctively he looked away as the Avatar flew past again shouting "Toph! Toph can you hear me?! Sokka! _**Toph**_! I can't see them! Katara _I can't see them_!"

The Kiyoshi warrior collapsed as if she was a puppet with its strings cut, unable to do anything but call out from their position on the rock of the Serpent's Pass "No. Oh no. Please no. Sokka! Sokka where are you?! Please, please, _please_. _**No**_!! _**Sokka!!**_ Please. I was supposed to- _Sokka!_"

The Avatar flew towards Katara, who was standing still on a platform made of ice, staring out onto the lake "...I can't see them. Katara- Katara I can't see them. They're just- They're _gone_."

She was a way away so he barely heard it as she softly said "They can't be gone. _He _can't be gone," before shouting "Sokka can't be gone!!!"

"They are. They're- I _can't_- _**Katara.**_" The Avatar was shaking his head, shaking all over in truth.

"_**NO!**_ He _can't_ be _**gone**_." The whole lake swelled and surged with her shout, ice crystals spider-webbing their way across the surface "They probably just floated off course. Off somewhere we can't see them. He'll be fine. He will be. _**Fine**_. He'll be fine and catch up later. We should just keep going forward, head to Ba Sing Se, they know that's where we're going, they know so they'll- he'll- No. No. He'll be fine. He's _not_ _**dead**_."

He turned away from the scene as she began to cry, hoping against hope that she was right. That the Avatar's missing companions still lived and would meet up with him later.

---


	2. Part 1, Chapter 1

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 1, Chapter 1.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: None really.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: Thank you if you read the prologue, thank you if you liked it, a special thank you if you reviewed.

---

He awoke blind. Cold. Smothered in the dark. Pain lancing down his side and across his face as he was shaken, hard, as though the world was coming down around him. "Wha-?" he managed before the urge to cough overtook him and he was left spluttering and choking with lungs that felt full of water.

"Sokka!" Toph's voice came from somewhere near him "Sokka you're _alive_!"

After getting his breathing under control he responded "Toph, where are we? What happened?"

"I'm not sure," she said, sounding puzzled "but I think we're inside the Serpent's Pass." He couldn't see her, couldn't see anything and he wondered if this was what it was like for her away from solid ground.

"Okay, that's- I don't know what that is. Why haven't you earthbended us out of here?" he wasn't sure that was a question he wanted to know the answer to.

"I've _tried_!" she declared, sounding exasperated "But the rock above us isn't very stable and I hit my head when we were sucked in here; I can't seem to make anything move without making everything shake and I don't know if I'm currently strong enough to protect us if it all came down on top of us."

"Oh," he mumbled, before his eyes narrowed in the dark "Are you alright? You're not hurt too badly are you?"

"No" she replied "I mean, my head hurts and everything feels kinda fuzzy but I'm not hurt anywhere else. How about you?" That wasn't good, she probably had a concussion.

Taking a moment to assess his own damage he shrugged, wincing and regretting it as he did so "I've hurt my side. Not broken my ribs, thankfully, but bruised them and it feels like I've scraped some of my skin off there as well." He prodded gingerly at his cheekbone "I think I've also done something to my face, but I'm not sure what exactly, it feels like I've scraped it too but it might just be a bruise. Otherwise I'm a bit banged up, but nothing too bad."

"Alright then," she declared, clapping her hands together "let's get out of here. The tunnel leads that way."

There was a pause "What way? I can't see you."

"What?!"she yelped "have you gone blind?"

He laughed, couldn't help himself "No. It's just really, really dark in here."

"Oh. Well-" he heard her stomping about before her small, strong hand was grabbing his own and hauling him up "hold on, I'll lead us out of here."

He trailed behind her as she began to walk, going as slowly and carefully as he could but still stumbling blindly over the slightly uneven terrain; feeling this sense of fear, of vulnerability, begin to take root in his chest. He felt like a child, stupid and helpless.

He found that he had no desire to talk, no desire to do anything that would take his concentration away from not tripping over and breaking some part of himself, so they moved on in silence; trapped in the dark, in the damp, cold world under the Serpent's Pass.

After a while he lost track of time. With no light, no way of knowing how much time had passed, it became easy to fall into an almost hypnotic trance, his world narrowing down to the cold, Toph's strong hand holding his, his plodding footsteps, the silence occasionally broken by the sound of waves or water dripping. He felt exhausted, numb, and it was only getting worse. Each step seeming to take a lifetime, each moment dragging on, and then suddenly Toph stopped.

He stumbled, almost slamming into her, before he managed to regain his balance, staring out into nothing and wondering why she'd stopped. "We have a problem," she said, her voice sounding strained and rusty "The tunnel ends here, or at least the part of it that's not underwater. From what I can feel it drops down sharply before bending back up and-" she paused, obviously concentrating "and then I think it ends, opens to the outside world, except I'm fairly sure it's still underwater when that happens."

"So if we want to get out of here we'll have to swim," he said, which wouldn't usually be a problem except she couldn't swim and he was injured. Exhausted.

"Yeah," she all but spat "Swim or wait, rest, hope that I can earthbend us out of here later."

Which might be an idea if they weren't cold, damp injured and without their supplies, not to mention likely to get weaker the longer they waited. "There's not anything to start a fire with is there?"

"No," she replied, bluntly "nothing but us and the water and the rock."

"Okay then-" he muttered "how far is it? Do you think you can make it?"

"It's not that far" she didn't sound confident, which was unusual for her "pretty much just straight down and then up again, but I can't swim and I can't _see_ in the water and my head- my head_ hurts_ Sokka."

"I know Toph, but do you think-" he swallowed thickly, his mouth dry "Can you do it Toph, if you hold onto me?"

There was a long, pregnant, pause before she replied, sounding small and scared when she did "I'm not sure, but I don't think we have any choice. The tunnel has been getting increasingly unstable as we've moved through it and I've been sort of earthbending to prevent it from collapsing on top of us only I think I'm running out of strength."

Okay, that really, really wasn't good. "You've been-?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Why didn't you tell me?" _why_? Did she think he was weak?

"I didn't want you to worry" she snapped, the rock around them shaking as she did so.

"Okay then," he yelped "where's this water?"

"In front of us, directly in front of us" she replied, sounding apprehensive.

He edged forward, testing the ground in front of himself carefully as he did, until he felt the edge of the pool. Dropping down until he was seated on the rim, his legs in the cold, cold water, he called back to where Toph was "Okay, come here."

She didn't move for a moment before suddenly she was next to him, sitting on the rocky water's edge. "So," he mumbled, not exactly sure how to do this and fuzzy-headed in a way that meant it was unlikely he'd come up with a better plan sometime soon "I'll get in and then you get in and hold onto me and I'll get us out of here." It sounded like it would work. Sort of.

"Al-" she cleared her throat roughly "alright."

He let himself slip forward into the cold water, keeping himself afloat easily, and waited for Toph who entered the water awkwardly and flailed about a bit before he managed to grab her. "It's almost straight down before bending up again, right?" he asked one final time.

"Um-hm" she murmured an affirmative.

"Okay-" he took a deep breath "just-" he arranged her so she had a good hold on him that wouldn't get in his way as he swam "on the count of three take a deep breath."

"Okay-" she responded with a small, quavering voice.

"One-" they could do this, it would be fine "Two-" he could do this, he'd been swimming all his life "Three-" he waited until he heard Toph take her breath and then he dived.

Toph had been right, the tunnel went pretty much straight down with nothing to impede them. It was harder going than he liked; he was injured, tired, _frightened_ if truth be told and Toph clung to him like dead-weight, incapable of helping. It seemed an eternity before he reached the bottom of the shaft, but at the same time it felt like seconds before his hands were brushing against rock. He turned carefully, pushing his feet against the bottom of the tunnel to help propel them up the slanted passage that was their way out.

He had his eyes clenched shut in the dark water, but even then he sensed the change in light, slight as it was. He blinked them open carefully and found the water they were moving through was no longer pitch black, instead a darkly murky blue-green-brown. It wasn't much light, in fact it was worryingly little, but it indicated that they were heading in the right direction.

Suddenly Toph jerked against him, clenching her fingers hard into his flesh, and the world around them began to shake. There was something behind them, something pushing at them, pushing around them. With wide eyes he watched as the tunnel filled with bubbles, with air that began to force them up and out, like a cork being popped.

The tunnel inside the Serpent's Pass must have collapsed, forcing the air inside it to find any way it could to escape.

The bubbles propelled them out of the tunnel and towards the surface at high speed. He kicked a little, more out of a desire not to be helpless than because it was any help if he was honest, and clung to Toph, hoping it would be over soon. Which it was. Sooner than he would have thought, from the weakness of the light, they were erupting to the surface, a great frothing mass of bubbles coming with them. They both floundered for a moment, before the water settled and he managed to settle them into a float, giving him the opportunity to take stock of their situation.

They were floating not too far from the shore of the Western lake, a few minutes swim at most, and the reason for the lack of light in the tunnel was readily apparent, as night had fallen sometime when they were under the Serpent's Pass. "You okay Toph?" he asked her.

In the faint moonlight he could see her scowling "I am never, ever getting in any water deeper than my knees ever, ever again!" she declared, her voice rough "and even then there had better be a good reason."

"Well, then how are you going to _bathe_?" he asked, which probably wasn't all that relevant, but he wasn't thinking all that well past the relief of being able to _see_ again.

"I don't know," she replied "and right now I don't care. Get us out of here; I'm sick of being _blind_."

That was a sentiment he could sympathise with. Readjusting his grip on her he began to swim, heading for the shore with long, simple strokes. The water didn't remain deep for very long and soon enough he was letting her go as they both struggled to their feet, exhausted, wounded, hungry, thirsty and lost. They stumbled out of the water on shaky legs and collapsed on the shore.

Toph was making appreciative noises about being back on solid ground as he rolled on his back and stared up at the sky, up at Yue staring down. "We need to find some shelter" he called out from his unmoving flop in the sand "get some rest, try to catch up with the others in the morning. We can't be too far off course."

Toph snorted from somewhere to his left "Yeah, except we've lost all our stuff, your weapons and my passport included, and I as much as it pains me to admit it I don't think we're getting across the Serpent's Pass with just my earthbending."

He groaned; it was only logical for Aang and the others to continue on to Ba Sing Se, since that was where they'd all been heading before they'd been separated. It was also likely that the others probably thought that they'd drowned, since they hadn't been rescued- unless something had happened and they couldn't rescue them. Even then they were on a limited timeline and both Aang and his sister knew that, so if they couldn't find him and Toph they were likely to continue on, hoping to meet up later if they all survived, and if somehow _Katara and Aang_ had died then _someone_ had to carry the news of the eclipse to the great city. So, all he could conclude from his rather dazed and confused thoughts was that they'd have to head to Ba Sing Se, for one reason or another.

"Okay Toph, it's time to get up" he muttered, staggering to his feet and looking over to his companion, who was lying comfortably on her back in the sand. She scowled, darkly, but made her way to her feet as well, following him as he lurched slowly towards the cover of the tree line. It was slow going as his muscles had stiffened up while he was lying in the sand, and he was tired, sore, injured. Toph wasn't faring much better, but eventually they stumbled their way away from the shoreline and into the shelter of the trees, plodding along aimlessly through bushes and shrubs.

The night was quiet and still, cool in a dull way, or maybe that was just because he was soaked to the skin and numb because of it. The sand that had stuck to his wet clothes and skin was chafing him, scraping his flesh raw where it rubbed against cloth or other parts of him. His side hurt, his face hurt, his arms hurt, his lungs hurt. He wondered how Toph was doing, how badly her head hurt, if she was injured anywhere else, if she was as hungry as him, as thirsty.

There was the crackle of a twig snapping from nearby, probably just some animal fleeing from them, except Toph was calling out "_Sokka!_" and suddenly the world exploded with light.

"It's the Avatar's companions!" he heard a voice shout "The Water Tribe boy and the Earth Kingdom girl!" before something was swiping at him out of the light.

He blinked frantically, trying to make his eyes adjust after being so long in the dark, as Toph called out "Fire Nation soldiers!" and he ducked away from whatever was trying to reach him. He fell over, on his ass, and flailed about on the ground near him for something to defend himself, wishing, _wishing _that he still had his weapons.

He heard an "Oof" and saw one of the soldiers go down, smacked on the head with a rock Toph had earthbended at him as another one rushed him. Feeling something stick-like with his right hand he grabbed it and struck up at the man coming towards him, hitting the guy in the balls with a broken tree branch. As the man went down whimpering he smacked him again, this time in the head, knocking him out. He looked around frantically, searching for the next soldier he would have to strike, only to find that Toph had knocked the others out and was standing over one of them panting.

Scrabbling his way to his feet he looked down at the four soldiers they'd rendered unconscious with good luck more than anything else, "Okay-" he said, looking to Toph "Okay. Let's get their packs and get out of here, they probably have supplies we can use." Darting forward he liberated the pack from the back of the soldier he'd knocked out, taking the man's ornate sword as well, even though he wasn't sure he'd know what to do with it. He went over to one of Toph's soldiers and took that man's pack as well, ignoring his weapon, and then looked over to see that Toph had the other two packs.

Without a word they headed away from the downed soldiers, first at a fast walk before breaking into a run; rushing almost blindly through the forest. He wasn't sure how long they ran for, though it felt like an eternity, before he was suddenly falling forward, having tripped over something unseen in the dark. He lay there, dazed but thankfully not injured any further, and couldn't quite make himself get up again. He was too tired, too, too tired. He felt more than saw Toph flop to the ground next to him and the next thing he knew she'd earthbended a tent up around them. He let himself relax, let sleep take him, let himself fall into the dark, curled up on the forest floor next to Toph.

---


	3. Part 1, Chapter 2

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 1, Chapter 2.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Graphic violence.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: For those of you who are waiting for Zuko to show up, it's going to be a while. They have to reach Ba Sing Se first and then a couple of other things are going to happen, but he _will_ show up then. Sorry.  
Furthermore: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing.

---

He awoke disoriented. Sore. It was dark but not really dark, as rays of light were filtering in cracks between the slabs of rock surrounding him. He sat up carefully, wincing as every part of him screamed in pain, and turned to face Toph, who was curled up around two of the Fire Nation packs. Gingerly he reached out and gently shook her, calling out "Toph, come on, wake up." She murmured a complaint and uncurled slowly, sitting up almost as carefully as he had. When she was upright she sighed and the earth tent disappeared back into the ground, letting proper light in.

It looked to be about noon, some abstract part of his mind thought as he stared at her in horror. There was dried blood covering her right ear, smeared across part of the right-side of her face, staining her neck and the fabric of her clothes. He lurched forward and grabbed her, ignoring her squawking, and gently turned her head to see its point of origin. There was a long gash in her scalp above her right ear, caked over with blood and sand. _No wonder her head had been hurting her_. He probed it carefully but didn't feel anything move, much to his relief, and it was raised and swollen and not flat or concave so he didn't think her skull was fractured. He didn't think-

"Sokka! Sokka!" she was calling him, shaking him "Sokka! Why you're _crying?!_" and she just sounded so incredulous it was almost funny. He laughed hoarsely, surprised when something hot and salty splashed into his mouth. Raising his hands to his face he was startled to find that his cheeks were wet with tears.

"Sorry-" he murmured, his voice a barely audible croak "Sorry Toph. I don't know what came over me."

Drying his sore and undoubtedly bruised face carefully he looked over to the packs they'd stolen the night before, grabbing the nearest one and dragging it over to him. He opened the thing carelessly and began searching its contents, removing a fat water skin with a small sound of delight. He passed it over to Toph so she could drink as he continued to search, pulling out the soldiers' rations which he dumped in the space between them. When Toph was finished with the water skin she handed it back to him, letting him take a long needed drink as she picked through the rations. She'd drunk half the thing and he finished it off all too easily; hopefully they'd be others in the other packs.

He took a piece of hard rice cake and some of the dried meat and made himself a tasteless, dry meal that he scoffed as if it was prepared by the finest chef in Ba Sing Se. Fuller and thirst quenched he finally let himself take stock of their situation. They had nothing but the clothes on their backs and whatever was in the soldiers' packs, they were a far way off course to the West- at least a day if not more from the Serpent's Pass (how they'd ended up that far he wasn't sure), they had no way of crossing it if they reached it so their best bet was a ferry from Full Moon Bay- except they had no passports- they were injured, and they'd lost their companions. Not good, not too awful, but not good.

He needed to come up with a plan. He needed to- he was going to throw up. He whirled away and lurched to the side, heaving up the food he'd just eaten, the water he'd just drunk and what felt like a lake full of bile. He was still gagging on nothing long after he'd thrown up the entire contents of his stomach, his bruised side screaming at him, his eyes watering. This was hell, it had to be. Eventually it subsided, leaving him feeling bruised inside and out. He turned back around slowly, ashamed, and almost started up again at the sight of Toph's gore covered form. "Here," she said, holding out another water skin.

He took it from her with shaky hands and lifted it to his lips to drink, using the first mouthful to swill out his mouth and spit, before taking small sips. "You alright now?" she asked him, frowning uncomfortably.

"Yeah," he coughed out, sipping more water and gesturing at the soldiers' packs that were still unopened "Yeah. I'm fine. Hand me those packs."

She directed a long, flat look at him but did as he asked; handing the packs over. He took them and then reached out tentatively for another piece of the rice cake that he nibbled on carefully as he emptied the contents of all the packs onto the ground between them, sorting things into piles of provisions, water, anything else useful. He found the scroll in the last pack he searched, and cringed when he unrolled it to find incredibly detailed, lifelike depictions of them all as well as Zuko and the old man Zuko cared for. Whoever had drawn this was worryingly talented, and the little lists of collected intel written next to the picture of each of them was even more unsettling. He looked from the scroll over to Toph, who was gnawing on a tough bit of dried meat and ignoring him "This isn't good."

"What isn't good?" she asked.

"This," he waved the scroll at her "It's got pictures and descriptions of us, and better than the usual ones."

She frowned "Yeah, so?"

"So," he sighed "we're near the Western Lake that Suki said was being rigidly patrolled by the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation that now has a really good way of identifying us."

"Oh," she didn't sound too impressed "Then shouldn't we be getting out of here?"

He grabbed the two least obviously Fire Nation packs and began to stuff them each with an equal share of the rations and water skins (of which they still had four full ones and another two with some water left in them), before adding the battered map he'd taken from the first soldier's pack to the one he'd take as well as a short dagger. He handed Toph her pack and then shouldered his own, leaving the rest where they lay with the ornate sword he'd stolen the night before. For some reason he just couldn't make himself pick it up again. "Our best bet for meeting up with the others is to head to Ba Sing Se, so we'll head back towards the Serpent's Pass and from there on to Fool Moon Bay," he told her "We'll find some way to get on one of the ferries, even if we have to stow away."

"Well it's not like I have a better plan" she replied, already heading off. That didn't exactly fill him full of confidence, but what could he do.

They trudged along in silence for a while, which he found strangely peaceful. It was a nice day and the dappled sunlight filtering through the leafed canopy overhead started to lull him into a state of relaxation. They walked together through the forest without a path for a couple of hours before they suddenly broke through some underbrush onto a narrow, paved road; it went the way they wanted to go, so without a word they began to follow it, walking easier on the smooth surface. He wasn't sure how long they walked without trouble but all of a sudden Toph stopped "There are people coming from behind us; they're riding those lizards so I think they're from the Fire Nation."

"There they are!" he whirled around at the shout, hands flying to weapons that weren't there, already realising that it was too late as he struggled to get the pack off his back so he could grab the dagger. The three soldiers were already upon them before he brandished it, so all he could really do was jump out of the way as one of them attempted to run him down. Toph knocked the soldier who had rushed him off his lizard with a rock and made a deep crack down the road that unseated another one, her attention already turning to the third. He adjusted his grip on the dagger, wishing that he'd brought the sword even though he hadn't been able to stand the sight of it, and waited for one of the dazed soldiers to rush him. He wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do, he wasn't used to bladed weapons and some visceral part of him didn't like the thought of what would happen if he stabbed one of the men.

Before he was forced to make up his mind a large piece of rock was flying at the soldier, smashing into him and crushing his head. Blood- blood, bone and things he didn't even want to think about rained down around him as he stood there, staring at the headless shell that used to be a man. "Hey! What are you doing?!" he heard Toph yell, which broke him out of his stupor enough for him to register that the other two soldiers were lying on the ground in the same state, and his companion was facing down a little old lady who was just relaxing out of a battle stance.

"Feh" the old woman snarled, spitting on the ground near the corpse closest to her "nothing but a bit of pest-control."

"What-?" he mumbled as it registered that the old woman had killed the soldiers, just like that.

The woman ignored them as she stalked over to the lizards, taking anything the soldiers had left strapped to them before spitting out "Come on, shoo, get out of here" and slapping them on the rump to make them run. He watched, feeling strangely distant, as the lizards bolted and the old woman walked back over to the corpses, staring down at them as if they were nothing, just rubbish. That sick feeling from before returned, strong and undeniable, and the next thing he knew he'd dropped to his knees on the bloody stone and was retching up his guts again.

While he was throwing up he heard the woman state "better clean this up" and felt the earth shake, but even after he'd finished vomiting he couldn't bring himself to look up. After that there was a pause before the old woman spoke again "Look, you can stand down. I'm not going to do anything to you or your friend, it's obvious neither of you are Fire Nation scum. In fact you're the Avatar's companions if I'm right."

"How would you know that?" Toph asked, her voice suspicious.

"Those idiots haven't exactly been subtle about who they don't want hanging around here," the woman replied, sounding disconcertingly non-threatening "been going around flashing those pictures of you, asking questions where it'll get around." There was another pause and then "Shouldn't we do something for your friend? He doesn't look too good."

"He's been like this all day" Toph responded, sounding worried "I don't know what's wrong with him."

"Might be shock," the woman said, sounding concerned "something's obviously happened to you two, you look pretty beat up."

"Mm" Toph murmured, not giving anything away.

"Why don't I bring you back to our camp? We've got food, medicine, more than enough water that you can get cleaned up."

He finally raised his head to see the bodies of the soldiers had disappeared, presumably into the blood stained crack across the road, and Toph still staring the old woman down, but slightly more relaxed than she had been before "Why would you offer that?"

Expressionless, the old woman replied "The Fire Nation Army burned my home, destroyed my business, killed pretty much everyone I had left- and I've watched them rampage across these lands, I've seen them do things that no person with even a shred of honour would even consider. I want them _gone,_ I want Ozai defeated, and as far as I'm concerned the Avatar is the best bet the world has for achieving that. _You_ are companions of the Avatar, so I offer everything I can to help you."

"Okay" he rasped, surprised to hear his own voice "Okay, we'll come back with you." The way he felt right then it wasn't like things could get worse.

---


	4. Part 1, Chapter 3

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 1, Chapter 3.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
_**Warnings for this part**_: Graphic violence, references to the rape and murder of people other than our main characters, war crimes, general unpleasantness. AKA everything from the line under this minus the crossdressing.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: For those of you who are waiting for Zuko to show up, it's going to be a while. They have to reach Ba Sing Se first and then a couple of other things are going to happen, but he _will_ show up then. Sorry.  
Furthermore: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing.

---

The old woman had gathered up the belongings of the soldiers before leading them off the road and back into the woods, heading away from the shore of the Western lake. He'd extended a half-hearted offer to help her carry her burden at the start of their trek, but she'd just waved him off and shouldered everything as if it weighed less than air. She was a strange woman, dressed in well cut but practical clothes -made of fine but not obviously so cloth, walking with elegance while carrying at least twice her own bodyweight, fine-skinned but with a tough demeanour, looking like a farmer but moving like a noble woman, seeming small and helpless but capable of amazing violence. _Maybe that contradiction was something in the nature of Earth Kingdom women_ he thought, glancing at Toph.

The old woman led them down a meandering forest path, all but invisible to those not looking for it, towards some increasingly rocky ground. He heard the river before he saw it, small and clear and winding between its rocky banks, mostly hidden from their sight behind a large rocky outcrop. The old woman led them in the direction of the river, moving around the large rock, picking her way across the uneven ground with ease. "Our camp's just around here," she called back to them, pointing at the outcrop "I'm not travelling alone, so don't let the others startle you."

He couldn't see any camp at first, but as they moved around the large, rocky projection he saw that it was hollowed out, like a bowl on its side, half buried in the dirt. A large covered peddler's wagon and some people sitting around a fire were sheltering in the hollow side, and they looked up as he and Toph followed the old woman over. "Who's this then?" the wizened old man drying a rack of fish over the fire and stirring something in a pot called out to the woman.

"They're the Avatar's companions," she replied, dumping the soldiers' belongings at the edge of the camp "They were being bothered by some pests so I helped them out."

"Avatar's companions huh?" the old man murmured "Well come on, make yourself at home. We've plenty of fish for all."

He glanced over to Toph before edging closer when it became obvious that she was already pretty comfortable with the company they now found themselves in. He put down his pack and sat by the fire on the edge closest to the river, across from the other two adults of the group- a man and woman, probably married by the easy closeness and affection they were displaying towards each other. The woman was pretty- not beautiful, but sweetly plump and kind-faced- while the man was tall and rail-thin with a stern cast to his face, and dressed strangely for the Earth Kingdom -in black cloth edged with thick bands of intensely colourfully embroidered animals and flowers. The woman was dandling a toddler on her knee and cooing to it softly (even as she had her eyes on them) as the man quietly reassured a scared looking and altogether too thin boy of about four that was trying to hide behind him.

"This is Chen," the old woman pointed at the old man, "Yu" the young man, "Hua" the young woman, "Bo" the little boy, "and the baby is Yi. I'm Xia."

There was a pause as everyone stared at them expectantly before Toph spoke up "I'm Toph, he's Sokka, and how come you know we're the Avatar's companions but don't know our names?"

Xia snorted "It's always more polite to wait for people to introduce themselves, girlie." She began pulling things out of the large pouch on her belt "You got any water boiling Chen?"

"Of course" the old man replied "Are you wanting tea?"

Xia shook her head before gesturing at him "That one's been throwing up and he's walking like he's injured in places other than his face-" and then Toph "and she's got a concussion and a nasty split in her scalp." The old woman got out two cups and started adding various different things to them from the little bags she'd taken out of her pouch; she then took the kettle from the old man and poured water into the cups, releasing fragrant steam. She handed one cup to him with a "This'll settle your stomach" and the other to Toph with "For your head," before gathering up some other things and going to the river to collect some cold water.

He was stared into the cup of hot murky water and stuff, unsure if he should drink it, when she returned and sat next to him. "If I wanted to kill you I would have done so already," she stated "So drink." He frowned at the cup again before taking a careful sip, swallowing the strange tasting brew with a wince. Xia watched him until he had drunk it all before taking the cup away from him and declaring "Strip."

"What?!" he yelped, flinching away from her.

"Not naked" she replied, not even looking at him but at a tub of some kind of unguent that she had opened "just so I can see how you've been hurt."

"Why?" he asked, though he suspected that was a foolish question that he already knew the answer to.

She tsked and rolled her eyes "You're not stupid, or at least I hope not. _This_" she pointed to one of the pots in front of her, the one with the green lid "is for bruises, helps them heal up well, and _this_" she pointed to another pot, this one with an orange lid "is for scrapes. Keeps them clean, makes the skin knit faster, reduces scar tissue. If there's anything else wrong with you I'll probably have to make something for whatever it is, but I can't do any of that if you won't let me treat you."

It couldn't hurt, he supposed, and it would be nice to shake some of the sand out of his clothes sometime soon, so he might as well do as she asked. Moving carefully he stood and stripped down to his underwear, shocked as he did at the torn and frayed state of his blood-stained clothes. Xia looked at him, flatly examining his bruises and scrapes, her eyes particularly lingering on his side where his skin had already turned a dark purpley-black and his right thigh that he hadn't even noticed was scraped badly. The old woman tsked again and shook her head, "Here," she said, handing him a small bar of pinkish soap and the pots "go get cleaned up first, you're covered in dirt, sand and blood, considering there's nothing too badly wrong with you you might as well apply the ointment to yourself. Remember _green_ for bruises, _orange_ for scrapes. I'll get you something to wear until you decide whether you want to bother washing and mending your clothes; not that I think that's a good idea, with how distinctive they are."

She got to her feet and walked over to the wagon before he had the chance to respond, leaving him standing in his loincloth and staring at the soap. He _did_ feel pretty gross, so what could it hurt? He'd turned and started towards the river when Xia called out "Not there. Go a bit further downriver." Rolling his eyes he did as she'd asked, making his way just out of the sight of the camp before steeping into the cool water. It made sense, he supposed, she didn't want him polluting the drinking water.

The river may have been narrow but it was surprisingly deep, coming up to just over his knees, and cold down at the bottom. He knelt carefully on the rocky bottom and leant back until he was totally submerged in the water before sitting back up and picking up the soap he'd left in a rounded depression in one of the rocks that made up the river's banks. He wet the soap and worked up a lather, surprised at the rich texture, before getting to the business of bathing.

He had finished washing his body and was just picking the last of the twigs and leaves and other things he didn't want to think about out of his now relatively clean hair when Xia walked up holding a bundle of green coloured cloth. "Here," she placed her bundle on a dry rock a little way away from the river's edge, "Trousers, shirt, belt, sandals, a clean loincloth-never worn by anyone- and a cloth to dry yourself. Now hurry up, I've just managed to convince your companion that she needs to wash some of the sand out of her hair before I treat the wound on her scalp and I'd like to get her in the water before she changes her mind."

_He was getting the impression that Xia was pretty bossy._

He quickly lathered the soap one last time and washed his face before dunking himself to make sure he'd gotten rid of all the soap. He climbed out of the river carefully, cringing a little at the sodden feeling of his loincloth sticking to him damply. He picked up the cloth the old woman had left for him to dry himself with and did just that, before wrapping it around his waist and undoing his loincloth, which splatted damply onto the rocks beneath him. He gathered the clothes she'd left for him and the pots of ointment. He kept the cloth wrapped around his waist until he got the new loincloth on underneath it and then dropped it, picking up the pots of ointment and carefully smearing their contents on his wounds. Once that was done he got dressed quickly and slipped his feet into the rough sandals then bundled his old loincloth in the cloth with which he'd dried himself and made his way back to the camp, passing Toph and Xia on his way; his companion looking sulky and the old woman looking stubborn.

Sitting back down at the fire he accepted the bowl and spoon that Chen handed to him with a "Here, smoked fish stew" and began to eat, surprised at both his appetite and how calm his stomach felt. Yu and Hua were now both watching him carefully, the toddler asleep on her lap and the boy tucked into Yu's side, eating his own bowl of stew happily.

"You're not travelling with the Avatar?" Yu asked, his voice soft but stern.

He shook his head "We got split up on our way to Ba Sing Se."

"Ba Sing Se?" Hua asked, her voice gentle and pleasantly musical "Why would you want to go there?"

He gave a one sided shrug "We have some information to tell the Earth King that might lead to the defeat of the Fire Nation."

Chen snorted "Good luck there boy, the whole city may as well be made of rusted iron."

He frowned "What do you mean."

"Stuck," the old man stated, getting up and going over to the soldiers' possessions that Xia had brought back "Unmovable. Broken." Chen snorted another little laugh as he began to pick through Xia's loot "there are many things wrong in Ba Sing Se. Many, many things."

"That doesn't matter," he replied "even if no one will listen we have to catch up to Aang and my sister, and that's where they'll be heading so that's where we'll be going. Not that I know how we'll get there as we've lost everything; Toph's passport included."

"Hmm-" the old man murmured, but didn't say anything more. Instead focussing on what he was doing.

He finished his bowl of stew in the following silence, discretely watching Yu and Hua watch him. It wasn't long after he'd put the bowl aside that Toph and Xia returned, his companion clean, dressed in new clothes and smelling faintly medicinal; the bandage across her head telling him that the old woman had treated her at the bank of the river. "Nice stew huh? I had some while you were washing." Toph said as she sat down beside him.

"Yeah," he replied, "How are you now?"

She shrugged "Good. Or _better_ at least, whatever that old bat gave me really helped my head."

"_Manners girlie_" Xia stated as she walked past them towards Chen, cocking her head at the old man when she reached him "What have we got?"

"Some food, some water, weapons, a little money -but its Fire Nation coin- and _this_" he held a scroll out for her perusal.

"Well that's not good," she replied flatly.

"What?" he called out "What's not good?"

"This" she replied, handing him the scroll.

It was like the one they'd found on the first set of Fire Nation soldiers, except that aside from the small pictures of Aang, Katara, Zuko and the old man this one stared both Toph and himself in very, very prominent roles. Obsessively prominent to be exact, judging from the image after image of them dressed in possible disguises. "You'd think we'd done something to annoy the artist" he mumbled, staring at the picture of what Toph and himself might look like as Fire Nation soldiers.

Toph frowned at him "What is it? Remember _blind_ here."

"It's another scroll, like the one from before" he answered her "only mainly about _us_."

"Oh," she muttered "must be because of those soldiers we knocked out."

"Knocked out?" Yu asked, his voice sharp "Didn't kill?"

"Shush husband" Hua reprimanded him "Not everyone is as bloodthirsty as you."

"Vengeance is never sated," Xia said, sitting down where Chen had been before "but there will be plenty of soldiers on our travels."

The matter of fact way they spoke about killing made him uncomfortable, but Toph didn't seem bothered as she asked "Are you headed to Ba Sing Se too?"

"Feh" Xia spat, spitting on the ground beside her "It's almost twenty years since I was thrown out of that city and I'm not setting foot in it now." She spat again "No. Never Ba Sing Se."

"We're not headed anywhere," Hua said "We're just travelling. Keeping one step ahead of the Fire Nation, helping out where we can."

"Mm" added Yu "There are a lot of refugees on the roads. Refugees and spies."

"It's shameful" muttered Chen as he passed them carrying what he'd taken from the soldiers' belongings over to the wagon "Earth Kingdom people spying for _them_."

Xia laughed humourlessly "There are bad people born into every race. Suffering is just part of the human condition."

No one seemed to be able to think of anything to say after that so they all lapsed into silence. Without anything happening to distract him it didn't take long for him to realise that they were wasting time they should have been spending catching up to Aang and Katara. With that in mind he said "We should probably get going now."

There was a pause before Xia spoke up "What you should probably do is find a disguise."

"Yeah, that's true" he replied "But I think whoever drew up that scroll already thought of them all."

"Mm-" she gave him a strange look that he couldn't quite decipher "How about we come along with you for a while. We were going to break camp tomorrow anyway, and that way we can back you up if you run into any soldiers."

He couldn't think of any real reason why not so he nodded, "Yeah, okay."

"Well then," she replied, getting to her feet "Give us a hand."

---

They moved through the forest with surprising ease, wagon and all. It hadn't taken long to pack up the camp and for Xia to make the ground swallow any traces that they'd ever been there. The old woman was leading their little procession, with Toph and himself following her. After them came Chen, who was using earthbending to roll the stone wheels of the wagon, with Hua, Yu and the children bringing up the rear.

They were silent as they travelled, Xia off in her own head and the others disinclined to speak; he didn't know what to say, and Toph seemed to just be happy enjoying the day, and walking barefooted on solid ground. They travelled for hours just like that, in silence, as the sun began to get low in the sky. "We'll find somewhere to make camp soon" Xia called back to them as she passed through some bushes up ahead, moments before Toph suddenly stopped and grabbed his arm.

"Sokka," she said, low and troubled "There's something-"

"Ah-" he heard Xia exclaim, rough and punched out, before the old woman called out "Stay back there Chen, Hua, Yu- and don't let Bo come any closer."

There was a pause, during which he broke away from Toph and crept closer to where she'd obviously stopped. "You two should stay back as well" she called out, but by then it was too late. He'd already reached her.

It took a moment for his mind to process the girl. She couldn't have been any older than Toph- Her throat was just _gone_, just- and she was covered with blood. Everywhere. Blood. Her skirt had been hiked up and her trousers cut off so they lay in ribbons around her legs and- she had been- Raped. She had been raped. She was just a _child_. Just a- a- Child. She stared up at the sky with large, uncomprehending eyes. _Blind_ eyes he realised, looking closer. Eyes like _Toph's_. She was just like- He was sinking to the ground as he heard Toph make a small cry of distress from behind him.

Xia was moving across the scene like a ghost, gathering up the scattered possessions of the people who had been slaughtered there.

"What are you _doing_?" he heard Toph ask.

"Collecting anything that may be of use," the old woman replied, sounding her age for the first time since they'd met her.

"_How can you do that_?!" Toph shouted, sounding distressed in a way that he'd never heard before.

"There are others that may need them," the old woman replied, her face pained "There are always others. We sell or barter to those with the money or give to those without. We make sure those that still live have a chance to go on living-" she stopped, swallowed thickly "and we bury the dead."

"How many times have you seen things like this?" his own voice surprised him.

"Too many to count," the old woman replied, bending down and closing the girl's eyes, smoothing down her skirt "too many times to bear. Too many atrocities."

She fixed them with blunt stare before going over to tend to the other body "We found Bo wandering the forest alone, covered in blood; he won't talk about his family or where he came from. _Yi_ we took from her mother's arms, or at least I think that was her mother; the body was too burned to identify." She carefully collected the entrails of the boy, about his age and dark skinned, and packed them back in the gaping mess that was his belly, before going over and collecting his head from where it had almost rolled under a bush and placing it back where it should have been. She walked back over to the girl and picked her up as if she weighed nothing, setting her down next to the boy who was obviously her brother. The old woman stared down at the two sadly for a moment before gesturing with her hand and making the earth swallow them both.

"I'm sure you realise that the deaths of dark skinned young man and a blind girl in these woods at this time is no coincidence," she said when she finally turned to them "It may have been by soldiers or sympathisers or spies, but they _were_ killed for resembling the two of you. I don't imagine that particular danger will pass once you reach Ba Sing Se, not with the way the wind is blowing." She stopped to take a deep breath, staring off into the trees. "You may be safe once you are back with the Avatar, but you do not seem to know when and even _if_ you will be reunited- which is why I have a suggestion. One which I do not think you will like."

There was nothing he could say. He felt paralysed with horror, with sorrow, with shock and exhaustion, and helpless because of it. He couldn't even bring himself to get to his feet, let alone query her on the plan she had that she thought he wouldn't like. Toph didn't seem to be much better, if the blank expression on her face was anything to go by, and Xia seemed to realise that the horror of what they had witnessed with eyes and earthbending had rendered them incapable of making decisions for the meantime, as she suddenly clapped her hands together and said "Obviously that's an issue for later. For now let's get out of here and away from this place; we'll set up camp, have some tea, rest for a while and then I'll tell you what I think."

He nodded numbly and let her pull him to his feet, following along with deadened footsteps as she led them back to the others. They were greeted with silence and sad eyes, and he looked on them all with a new perspective- the things they must have seen, experienced. Xia took that which she had taken from the dead over to the wagon, saying something softly to Chen as she washed her hands using water from the barrel on the end of the wagon, before returning to where they were standing, taking Toph and himself by the hand and pulling them along as if they were children. He let himself be pulled, glad to have her take responsibility for a while. When he looked over to Toph he could see that same look of dazed horror on her face that was probably on his, as she let the old woman drag her along.

The sun had almost set before Xia stopped in a clearing she seemed to find suitable. "Sit," she said, pointing at the ground on her way over to Chen and the wagon.

"Shouldn't we help?" he asked, though he didn't feel like he'd be capable of it.

"No," she replied, "rest. You're in no shape for it."

Feeling vaguely stupid, childish, he dropped the pack he'd stolen from those soldiers and sat down where she'd pointed, trying to smile reassuringly at Toph when she followed suit. Not that it did any good as she probably couldn't see him. However her face did twitch into something that may have been distantly related to a smile in return, before going blank. He watched the others set up camp quickly, efficiently, getting a small fire started with ease to heat some water in their kettle. When the water had boiled Xia got out her collection of herbs and medicines and a small teapot, adding things from several pouches to the pot and filling it with hot water. As the tea steeped she gathered some blankets off the wagon and two cups, which she filled with the tea, before bringing it all over to them.

"Here," she said, handing them the blankets "the tea will make you sleep, things will be- not _better,_ but easier to bear in the morning."

Wordlessly they accepted the bundles of cloth and made half-hearted little beds for themselves, before Xia handed them the tea. He reached out and took Toph's hand, squeezing it gently as he drank down the tea, she squeezed back, harder than he had, and didn't release him even as they handed the cups back to the old woman. "Lie down" was the last thing she said before she wandered back to her companions and, still holding hands, they complied; curling up next to each other in their blankets on the ground as sleep quickly overcame them.

---


	5. Part 1, Chapter 4

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 1, Chapter 4.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: references to crossdressing, a lack of action.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on efverything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: For those of you who are waiting for Zuko to show up, it's going to be a while. They have to reach Ba Sing Se first and then a couple of other things are going to happen, but he _will_ show up then. Sorry. Also –worry not, Xia and co. arn't about to become major characters.  
Furthermore: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing.

---

His overly full bladder woke him as breakfast was being prepared; he untangled himself from the nest of blankets and Toph and crept off to the bushes to relieve it. Toph was just sitting up as he returned and she got up to use the bushes as well after a stilted greeting. He felt numb. Numb and sick inside, but life went on. _He_ had to go on. He packed up the blankets Xia had leant them and walked over towards the fire, holding them out to the old woman. "Put them on the wagon" she told him, her attention on what she was cooking "I'll sort it out later". He did as she asked, getting his first look at the wagon's contents. There were wooden chests of various qualities stacked one on top of the other, bags of cloth and supplies, barrels of water and who knew what else- anything and everything useful cleverly disguised as nothing much.

He turned around to find Toph already seated at the fire eating something in a bowl. Joining her he wordlessly accepted the cup of water and bowl of rice porridge that Xia handed him, staring blankly into their depths with no appetite. "Eat," the old woman told him "you need to keep your strength up." He picked up the spoon and began to poke at the porridge, taking a few small mouthfuls before his stomach rebelled, making him gag but thankfully not vomit. "I feared that would happen," the old woman said handing him a cup of the stuff she'd brewed him when they first met "this'll settle your stomach. You really need to eat." He drank the stuff down quickly, trusting it to work as it had the first time, and went back to picking at his food. Waiting to stop feeling like he was going to throw up.

After a while his stomach settled, letting him bolt down his lukewarm porridge, and giving him a chance to watch the others surreptitiously. Yu and Hua seemed to be more comfortable with their presence today than they had been the day before, though the boy Bo was still staring at them with suspicion as he scoffed his food. After hearing the boy's story he couldn't blame him.

When he'd finished and Toph had had a second helping Xia handed them both a cup of tea and fixed them both with a stern stare. "Now I think it's time to discuss disguises," she said, handing him the scroll from the day before "What do you see here?"

He unrolled the scroll and examined the image after image of Toph and himself in disguise. "I don't know, what?"

She tsked and rolled her eyes "Look closer, what's the one thing the same in every picture."

He looked closer "I don't know. It's just pictures of me or Toph in disguise."

"Disguised as _what_?" she sighed, sounding exasperated.

"I really don't know!" he couldn't understand what she was getting at "Everything. Anything. Pretty much every option for disguise available."

The old woman snorted a laugh "Ah. Well there's no sense in getting angry with you for proving my point."

He frowned at her "What point?"

She shrugged "What you are seeing here is simple, image after image of a dark-skinned _boy_ in disguise alone with image after image of a blind _girl_."

He squinted at the scroll "No, you're wrong. See here-" he pointed to the picture of Toph dressed as a Fire Nation soldier "Toph's dressed as a _guy_."

Xia shook her head "That's the female version of their grunt's uniform, you can tell from the extra waist piece and the way the breastplate is _red_ with black edging instead of the other way around," she traced those features of the illustration softly with her finger, before pinning him with a hard look "They do have female soldiers in all levels of command in their army -not many of them outside the elite forces, but we have encountered them amongst the rank and file, and _this"_ she tapped the drawing once, hard, "is definitely a female uniform."

"Oh-" he mumbled, examining the scroll again with new eyes. She was _right_, every image of him had him dressed as a guy and every image of Toph had her dressed as a girl. He had a horrible feeling he knew where she was going now. "You want to dress me up as a girl and Toph as a boy, right?"

She clapped her hands together "Right! I knew you weren't stupid. The person who drew this was operating under the assumption that there was no way you'd disguise yourself as the opposite gender, and you'll find he won't be the only one. Most men think disguising themselves as a girl is something that damages their honour."

"It's fine with me" Toph interjected, though neither he nor Xia paid her any heed.

He shook his head "But I'm not a girl. No one's going to believe I'm a girl."

"Eh," she waved away his concerns "You'd be surprised. You're pretty enough- slender, narrow shouldered, nice legs- dressed the right way, speaking the right way, moving the right way no one will be able to tell."

"Er-" he mumbled, disconcerted.

"Come on Sokka, it's a great idea!" declared Toph, looking entirely too enthusiastic.

He glared at her "What do you mean 'it's a great idea'?"

"No one's gonna try and dress me up like a china-doll or act like I'm all helpless if they think I'm a boy" she said, looking even more enthused by the idea, if that was possible.

Not that again "Is that all you think about?"

She ignored him, instead addressing Xia "You were right when you said boys don't like the idea of disguising themselves as girls. You'd think they thought we were weak."

"Hey!" he snapped "You know I don't think you're weak; just look at my sister, just look at Suki. Look at _you_. Of course I don't think you're weak, but I still don't want to dress as a girl."

She turned to him with a flat expression "_Why_? Katara already told me you let Suki dress you up as a Kyoshi warrior, what's all that different about this?"

"BecauseI did that so she'd teach me how to _fight_, this isn't the same, this is to _hide_ -and I just don't want to, okay?" _What would everyone think? What would his __**father**__ think?_

"Yeah," she didn't sound like she was agreeing with him "Well _I_ don't want to end up like that girl from yesterday, so man up and stop complaining."

Her words cut through him like a blade, his mind instantly returning to the scene from the day before, the girl lying on the ground- _what if it was Toph? What if it was __**Katara?**_

"I didn't mean it like that," she interrupted his thoughts, rubbing the back of her neck in agitation "I just meant that we don't really have another plan and things are obviously dangerous currently, and, well, with just you and me and you missing your weapons and my earthbending not at its best-"

He interrupted her "What do you mean, your earthbending's not at its best?"

She shrugged, uncomfortably "Things have been kinda fuzzy since I hit my head, not really bad, not even as bad as if I was standing on sand, but some of my strength, my _control_ is gone too, so-" she shrugged again "I mean, Xia said that sometimes happens if you get a concussion, right Xia?" the old woman nodded "and that it'll get better soon, but for now-" she broke off, looking uncomfortable.

The old woman sort of smiled at Toph before pinning him with her gaze "It would probably be better for her to get a chance to heal without using her earthbending too much."

"Oh-" he mumbled, unable to think of any reason other than his pride not to go along with Xia's plan, and he didn't think they'd find his pride to be reason enough. If pride was the feeling squirming uncomfortably in his chest. Taking a deep, fortifying breath he tried to meet the old woman's eyes "Okay then. I'll do it."

"Then I'll start making preparations; its best to have you used to it as soon as possible" she said, rising to her feet and going to the wagon. He watched her as she began pulling wooden chests off the thing and putting them to the side as if they were not the ones she wanted. Eventually she seemed to find what she was looking for as she carried a wooden chest back over to them and sat with it in front of her. It was made of dark, reddish wood and delicately carved with peaches, peonies, magnolias and plum blossoms, and when it was opened he saw that it was divided into compartments and lined with pale pink padded silk.

She took a stone jar out of the box, about as tall as his hand from wrist to the tips of his fingers, and placed it on the ground between them. After that she pulled out a stone bowl, and then a stone spoon. Without turning to face the old man she called out "Chen, oil." The old man came over and wordlessly handed her a corked jug, she nodded her thanks before saying "We'll need a bath." He nodded to her in return and walked over to the unoccupied part of their clearing, gesturing with his hands so that a bowl like protrusion of stone erupted from the flat ground, filling with water from a crack in the bottom.

"How did he do that?" he found himself asking.

The old woman shrugged "He's always had a talent for finding where water runs through rock. Now pay attention," she pointed to the things on the ground between them "The salve in this jar needs to be applied every three weeks, it removes hair and retards its growth. Now, I know you're not exactly as furry as a platypus bear, but excess body hair can trigger suspicion in people you don't want it to, so better safe than sorry. I'll show you how to prepare and use it now and then give you some to take away in case you need it later."

"I don't think I will," he interjected "we only need to be in disguise 'till we reach Ba Sing Se."

She sucked air in through her teeth slowly, before giving him an unreadable look "I'm not so sure about that. Everything we've heard from Ba Sing Se recently tells me anonymity may be more valuable than gold currently."

He frowned "What do you mean? And how would you know that? I thought you'd been-" he trailed off, not sure exactly what had happened to her in that city that made her hate it so.

She snorted "Chucked out on my ass like a bag of rotten grain?"

He shrugged in reply, not sure how to respond to that.

She laughed ruefully "Yes. However that doesn't mean that I don't have-" she snorted again "_friends_ in the city. I hear things. Chen hears things. Everything we hear is not good." She gave him another unreadable look "If you want to find your friends then it might be a good idea to be careful who you let know you're looking for them."

Now he was really confused "What?"

"There is no war in Ba Sing Se," she said in a sing-song voice "Or at least no war the Dai Li will let anyone talk about. They have control of the city by now, have had control of it for far too long, and they aren't going to be all that happy with someone running around looking for the Avatar and trying to talk to the Earth King about defeating the Fire Nation, so _be careful_."

He blinked at her blankly "I still have no idea what you're talking about."

She sighed and shrugged "Nevermind. You'll find out for yourself soon enough. Now back to the matter at hand," she gestured at the things in front of her "The salve."

Well, he had agreed to this hadn't he, so he couldn't go back on his word. Okay, so he wasn't all that keen on having all his body hair removed and then its growth retarded, but then again he was less keen on getting caught by vindictive Fire Nation soldiers. He nodded to Xia to show he was paying attention.

"Alright-" she said, taking the lid off the jar "_Firstly,_ you'll only want to use stone or ceramic implements to prepare the mixture as it tends to do strange things to wood or metal. _Secondly_, scoop out a large spoonful of the salve and add it to the bowl like this-" he watched her do so, cringing a little at the strange smell of the dark paste "then add a little oil and mix together to soften the salve- here, you do it." She handed the bowl with the partially mixed muck in it to him and stared him down until he started to mix. Eventually the paste stopped being so stiff and blended in with the oil "Good, good" she encouraged "Now add about a cup of oil to the bowl and mix it together," he did as she asked, watching the oil turn a dark reddish brown. She nodded when it was the right consistency and took it from him, saying "You can use any unscented oil or fat to do this, or water if you're in a pinch, but if you use water you'll need twice the concentration of salve. Now strip."

It took a moment for his mind to catch up, but when it did he sighed in resignation and did as she asked. This was the second time she'd given him that order in as many days. The second time he'd ended up standing in front of near strangers (and Toph) wearing nothing but his loincloth. "Now," she said inching over to him and placing the bowl on the ground by his feet "My salve can be applied to broken skin as it has nothing in it that should not enter the bloodstream and does, in fact, contain several elements that help with healing, but if you ever end up using any other type of depilatory salve I would recommend not doing it when you're injured like this" at that she dipped her hands in the oil and applied them to his right thigh near the scratch. She ignored the way he flinched away from her and proceeded to smooth the oil down his right leg and then his left leg before kneeling up and smearing it all over the parts of his torso not covered by the loincloth, dipping her hands back in the oil every time she ran out. She was almost clinical in her treatment of him, but having someone else's hands all over him still made him uncomfortable.

She stood to do his arms and shoulders before moving up to his neck and then very, very carefully applying it to his face only where his beard would grow in, when it thickened from the peach fuzz that sprouted slowly from his face currently. Once she had finished, once the bowl was empty, she stood back and looked him over before nodding "Now we must wait. Without a way to keep the time it is difficult to say how long the salve should stay on; in essence it should be as long as it takes to recite _Foolish Wei_, but you may not know the story so-" she scrunched up her face in thought "After a while it will start to tingle; count to two hundred after that and then scrape some of the oil off with your finger, if the hair comes off without resistance then you may wash the salve off. If it doesn't, then count to two hundred and try again and so on."

She wandered off to the wagon to wash her hands, leaving him standing there covered in oil and wondering what he was supposed to do now."Um-".

"Just stand there until it tingles and do what I told you," she called back to him before turning her attention to Chen "You may want to heat the water now." The old man nodded and used earthbending to float some hot stones that were buried in the bottom of the fire into the stone bathtub he'd made earlier, heating the water until it steamed. He waited and watched the others go about their business, afraid to look Toph in the eye. Bad enough that he'd agreed to disguise himself as a girl, bad enough, but standing there nearly naked made him feel like a piece of meat. _Katara would laugh herself sick at him right now... if she wasn't dead. Murdered. Raped. Lying in the dirt where some bastard Fire Nation soldier had put her_.

He almost gagged again, but whatever was in the tea Xia gave him suppressed the urge. _He was such a failure, he'd failed __**her**_.

---


	6. Part 1, Chapter 5

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 1, Chapter 5.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing. A lack of action. Boobs.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: For those of you who are waiting for Zuko to show up, it's going to be a while. They have to reach Ba Sing Se first and then a couple of other things are going to happen, but he _will_ show up then. Sorry. Also –worry not, Xia and co. arn't about to become major characters.  
Furthermore: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing.

---

He stood there feeling like a fool as Xia began to search the wagon with narrow minded focus. "How are you going?" a soft voice asked from his left. He jumped, startled, and whirled to face whoever had snuck up on him. It was Hua, looking at him with soft eyed concern.

"I'm-" he couldn't quite make himself say that he was okay. He didn't feel okay.

"The world is a hard place," she said, smiling slightly "But I think you will prove to be strong enough to survive it. Xia is fond of you in her way, and she never forms attachments to the weak."

He gave a half-hearted, one shouldered shrug, not sure if he should discuss his impression of the old woman with one of her companions "She's a bit-"

"Overbearing?" Hua asked, laughing softly when he nodded. "Yes, that she is. She's a good woman, means well, but she is too used to getting her own way, too used to being the puppet-master and not the puppet."

"Oh," he frowned at the woman, not sure what to make of that. "If it's not a rude question, how did you come to be travelling together?"

The woman gave him a sad smile "It's alright." He suspected it wasn't from the look on her face, felt guilty already for asking. "I'm travelling with her because- I am not sure of the best way to put this-" she trailed off, biting her lip "Have you heard of the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe?" He shook his head. "Well, they were a nomadic group that once travelled the land to the far west of the Earth Kingdom. They were legendary for their skills with textiles, as weavers and embroiderers, to the degree that important people from all over the world collected their work." She laughed bitterly and looked away "Some of it supposedly still hangs in the Fire Lord's palace, an irony since the Fire Nation wiped them from the face of the planet. It was an accident, or as much as an accident in war -they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." She paused and swallowed hard "They were slaughtered. Brutally. A few managed to flee, a few, not many. Yu, my husband, was not one of them. He was just a child, just nine years old, and everyone he knew, everyone he loved, died around him. He survived somehow, though sometimes I think he wishes he'd died that day. The soldiers were not merciful, as you can imagine, and they broke some part of him in a way that can never be fixed. Made it so he could never be the person he was born as, made him _him_."

She broke off, angry tears running down her face "I'm sorry," she choked out, wiping at her face "I don't know why I told you that. I shouldn't have told you that."

He didn't know what to say, couldn't think of any way to reply to that. The wheels of his mind were turning and he didn't like the conclusions they were reaching. _How was he so naive? How had he avoided the true extent of the horror of war until this point_?

"Anyway," she said, wiping her face again "Xia, Chen and- and-" she stopped and clenched her eyes shut "his wife pulled Yu from the battlefield. Rescued him. Killed many, many of the soldiers. After travelling for a while they came to my village and settled down. Xia opened a theatre, they made a home and a life, and I met Yu. We were only very young, but I knew I'd marry him from the moment I laid eyes on him, and I was right. We fell in love and I was never happier." She stopped, swallowed hard, and looked away. "We were only up in the hills, we were only gone for a day. We were looking for herbs to restock Xia's pharmacy. Choon-Hee, Chen's wife, the other half of his soul, had broken her leg so she stayed behind. It was just after lunch that we saw the smoke." her voice had gone lifeless, dead, "By the time we got back it was too late, they were all dead, the whole village, my family, everyone. Choon-Hee lay in the middle of the town, surrounded by dead soldiers –but one old, injured earthbender was not a match for the might of the Fire Nation Army. We were all that was left, so we took what we could and left. Hunted down those that had destroyed our lives- after that there was no reason to go back, so we just kept travelling."

"I'm sorry" was all he could say "I shouldn't have asked."

"No," she met his eyes, inner strength overtaking the sadness in her gaze "its fine. It hurts but I'll survive, and it's not like we're the only ones who have lost people because of this foul war."

"The Fire Nation killed my mother," he said before he was even aware that he was going to say it. He hoped that she didn't think he was saying that what had happened to him, to _Katara_ (he didn't even know if she was okay, he didn't even know where she was. He was such a _failure_.), was worse than what had happened to her.

"See," she said with a sad smile "you understand what I mean." The woman sighed before clapping her hands together "Now. How is the salve going? Has it started tingling yet?"

"No-" he replied, startling as it suddenly felt as if he had been submerged in cold water "Wait- no. It has."

"Well better get counting," she said with a backwards wave as she walked over to her husband, embracing him and tickling the baby in his arms.

He did as he had been told, counting slowly to two hundred, before lifting his left arm to where he could see his arm hair coated in the oil and running the index finger of his right hand across the skin. He watched in surprise as the hair on his arm went with the oil, leaving the revealed skin completely bare. "Um!" he called out, not sure of what to say "It seems to be ready."

Xia got up from the chest she was sorting through and came over taking his arm and repeated what he'd done. "You are correct," she said, nodding "head over to the bath. I'll meet you there."

With a glance at Toph -who was sitting curled up on herself, her face fixed in a blank expression- he went over to the bath, staring into its warm, steaming depths. Xia was with him a moment later holding two cloths, a pale yellow robe, a bar of soap, the pots of ointments for his wounds and another, larger pot. "You'll need to strip naked for this next part so I'll earthbend a screen around you when I go," she told him "take this cloth" she handed him the smaller one "and dip it in the water before wiping as much of the oil and hair off yourself as you can. It's not nice to end up in a bath full of floating hair, trust me on this. After you've done that get in the bath and wash yourself properly with the soap. This-" she waved the larger pot "is a moisturising cream, it will help with any dryness caused by the depilatory salve, so rub it into your skin before applying the ointments to your wounds. There's underwear folded up in the robe, I'll just-" she paused to earthbend a platform out of the ground near, but not too near, the bath "leave them here. Okay?"

"Yeah," he replied. She nodded and walked away, making a tall screen of rock erupt to encircle him and the bath as she went. After she was gone he looked from the cloth in his hand to the bath and back again before shrugging, dipping it into the warm water and getting to work. The oil slid off easily, taking his body hair with it and leaving his skin feeling oddly sensitive. He had to dip the cloth in the water a couple of times before he was finished, but soon enough he was standing there virtually hairless, slightly damp, and getting chilly. Discarding the cloth he removed his loincloth and climbed into the bath, careful not to end up on the hot stones. The bath was big enough that he didn't really have to worry, big and warm and relaxing. It was nice, very nice. Soothing even.

He let himself lay there for a little while, soaking the tension from his muscles. The ache from his bruises. Then grabbed the soap and began to wash himself. It was weird, the feeling of his skin; it was all silky and smooth now, strangely pleasant to the touch and still so, so sensitive. He pushed down the compulsion to caress his newly bare skin, instead focussing on getting clean. He wasn't sure what was in the creamy soap that Xia had given him today and the day before but it slid through his hair easily, without tangling it, and hadn't dried out his skin the last time he'd used it.

When he was clean he climbed out of the bath and dried himself with the other cloth, before grabbing the pot of moisturising cream Xia had left for him. He stared at it with apprehension for a moment before shrugging and applying it to the skin of his body and face. He treated his injuries with the salves and then reached for the robe, surprised to find it made out of cool, slippery silk instead of plain cloth. He was even more surprised when he found the underwear that Xia had left for him hidden inside the robe. It too was made of silk, pale blue and embossed with flowers and so, so tiny.

There wasn't anything about them that was inherently different from the underwear he was wearing now. Same basic function, same basic shape –a strip of cloth with the ends turned over and sewn so the waistband could pass through them to be tied at the side. He couldn't even say for sure they were women's underwear, as they looked _nothing _like what either Toph or Katara wore, but that's what he suspected they were. Women's underwear. Made of fine, expensive silk. The Kyoshi warrior costume was the only time he'd ever worn that particular fabric, and even then it was thicker than this, less delicate.

He didn't know how he felt about putting them on. He knew he should protest, that disguising himself as a girl was one thing but wearing a girl's underwear was something else entirely, but when he actually examined that thought he couldn't find what it was that made it that much worse. Couldn't work out why he knew, _knew_, that his father would be ashamed of him if he wore this tiny, little, harmless scrap of cloth. Why Katara would laugh at him. Why everyone he had known back home would look at him funny. What was it about _this_, about _underwear_ that was so-so- Embarrassing. Unforgivable. Reprehensible. _Intimate_. It just didn't seem to matter really, in the grand scheme of things.

This was the choice he'd made. He couldn't go back on it now. He had to accept what came because of it.

He stepped into the garment and pulled it up his legs, shivering at the feeling of the silk against his bare skin. It was new, novel, strangely exciting and at the same time humiliating. After tying the waistband he reached for the robe, swathing his whole body in silk, making his nerve endings sing uncomfortably. It really wasn't like the silk of the Kyoshi warrior's outfits; it was so much softer, more slippery, caressing his newly bare skin in a way he wasn't all that at ease with.

"I'm coming in now boy," Xia called from the other side of the stone shield that lay between him and the rest of the world.

"Um-" he mumbled in response, fiddling with the edges of the robe, trying to cover as much of his skin as possible "Okay." He felt strange. Vulnerable. Frightened in some way he couldn't quite pin-point.

Part of the rock slid away so that the old woman could step through, a wooden chest in her arms; she placed the chest on the platform she'd earthbended before and then gestured so the shield of rock was whole again. Another gesture had the bath disappeared back into the ground, leaving only a smallish puddle and some mud to tell where it had been. She frowned at the mud for a moment before clenching her hand, raising it slightly and then pushing it away from herself so that smooth rock emerged from the dirt to make a new floor, a clean floor, emerge to fill the space encircled by the shield. "That's better," she declared "we don't need everything getting muddy."

She turned back to the chest, opening it and staring into its insides for a while in silence before she shook her head. "This is where it's going to get awkward," she told him, her voice blunt "I expect you'll not like this next bit."

He eyed her wearily "what do you mean?"

"Breasts," she stated as she began to pull things from the chest, extending the platform as she did so until it resembled a small table more than anything else.

"Breasts?" he squeaked, staring at her.

"Yes, _breasts_," she said in the same flat, no-nonsense voice, still facing the chest and doing something with a jug of water "You may have noticed them attached to front of women."

"Er-" well of course he had, and now he was going to blush himself to death. There was something horribly embarrassing about having an old woman talk to him about breasts.

Xia turned to face him, holding something small, off-white and roundish "Now we could go the old-fashioned, imperfect route of _padding_, like so many do. It's easy, uncomplicated, but at the same time lifeless, and breasts are one of those parts of a woman that a good number of men notice the most. To the point that there are times when you could ask a man what the face of the girl he was just talking to looked like, what her voice sounded like, what they were discussing and he wouldn't have a clue, but ask him how big her breasts were, if they were confined in any way or just bouncing free and he'll be able to give you a _wealth_ of information-" she snorted and gave him a knowing look "don't you agree?"

He glared at her, not liking what she was insinuating. He didn't think he was the sort of guy to talk to a woman's chest and not her face, didn't think he was the sort of guy who would look at a girl and see a _thing_ not a _person_. He didn't think he was-

She threw the small, roundish thing at him, which he caught and almost dropped again from how absolutely creepy it felt. Soft and giving yet weighty, malleable but retaining its shape; it was like being handed a lump of soft flesh covered in the finest leather imaginable. "Blergh!" he squawked, juggling it from hand to hand "What on Earth _is_ this thing?!"

She gave him a look of pure exasperation "Stop being a child; it's full of water, it's not going to do anything to you." Giving the horrible thing a closer look he could see it was a small, spherical waterskin made out of something he had never encountered before, something incredibly flexible, and topped off with a little, highly complicated stopper.

"A set of these are the closest thing in appearance you'll get to actual breasts without finding a way to turn yourself female." She told him, watching him with a look of faint amusement "They're made from the membrane sack of-" she snorted "well, you don't want to know what they're made out of. They're strong, waterproof, flexible, pliable- I could park the wagon on one and not only would it not pop, but after the wagon had moved on it would regain its original shape." A wistful look came over her face as she sighed "Once upon a time I could have charged you a whole purse of gold for just one pair of these. Once upon a time-" She shook off whatever had come over her "Anyway. Come here boy and I'll show you how to fill them up."

Still holding the _thing_ he edged over to her as she turned back to the table, looking over her shoulder to see a jug of water and a small funnel next to a tiny, slightly wrinkled, off-white, deflated matching _thing_. "Give me that," she gestured to the thing she'd thrown at him, unstoppering it and pouring out the water when he handed it over. "Now watch closely" she said as she used the funnel to refill it from the jug and then showed him how to use the incredibly complicated stopper. When it was done she gestured to the other one and said "It's your turn now; you'll have to change the water once a week so it's important that you know how to do this." He filled and stoppered it quickly under her watchful eye, when he was done she nodded at him with approval and handed him the other one "Now you have breasts."

He stared at the things in his hands with a sort of horrified fascination. They felt too flesh-like, too life-like (not that he actually knew what a woman's breasts felt like), too-_something,_ creepy, for comfort. The stopper was interesting though, very interesting, he could see how the design would be very efficient at preventing leaks –something that might be useful sometime in the future. "What am I supposed to do with them now?" They were hardly going to be of any use flopping about in his hands.

She pulled an article of clothing out of the chest. It too was made of silk, apricot coloured this time, and embossed with butterflies and peonies. It was shaped like the bodice of a closely cut women's dress, though short, with straps for sleeves and a lace-up back. She handed it to him and gestured at the front of it "There are empty pouches for the fake breasts in the front of it, accessible from the inside."

He examined the garment, searching for the pouches she'd told him about; he realised pretty quickly that the garment wasn't new, the fabric was slightly worn in places -though not badly so- and the dye had faded a little here and there. It was in good condition though, and clean. He found the openings for the pouches on the inside, up near the shoulder straps where she'd said they'd be, and quickly squeezed the fake breasts into them, stoppers facing inwards so they didn't show from the outside. When he was done he stared at it, wondering for a brief, surreal moment how he'd ended up here, _why_, why he'd ever left home in the first place. He wasn't even a _bender_.

---


	7. Part 1, Chapter 6

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 1, Chapter 6.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: For those of you who are waiting for Zuko to show up, it's going to be a while. They have to reach Ba Sing Se first and then a couple of other things are going to happen, but he _will_ show up then. Sorry. Also –worry not, Xia and co. aren't about to become major characters.  
Furthermore: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing.  
Further-furthermore: Edited slightly since first version. Thanks Bluetiger.

---

He slipped the garment over his head, wincing slightly when the fake breasts bounced lightly against his chest. "I'll help you lace it up this time," Xia said softly "so turn around." He did as she'd asked, flinching a little at her touch as she laced him in. It wasn't tight, didn't even hurt his bruised side, but when she was finished it felt for a moment like it was choking him, like he couldn't breathe. There was something about it, about that instant in particular that felt at once momentous and incredibly ominous. Like the death of something. He forced the feeling away, he was being stupid. Proud.

Xia stepped back and examined him, nodding to herself, before heading back to the chest and pulling items of clothing out of it, stacking them on the stone table. She gestured at the pile of mostly black cloth "get dressed."

She'd stacked the clothes in order of what went on first, starting with socks and plain black garters to hold them up. After that it was voluminous trousers, worn in places, scuffed at the hems, though the fabric was good, very good. They were a white with thick black cuffs, as was the shirt with flared sleeves that he slipped on next. He did up the toggles fastening it closed from the standing black collar down to mid chest quickly, flinching when his hands brushed against the fake breasts. Feeling creeped out, hunted, he reached for the final item of clothing and stopped. "This is like what Yu is wearing," he muttered as he slowly lifted the black dress, examining the thick bands of embroidered flowers that edged it. Neither the embroidery nor the fabric was as fine as Yu's clothing and it had obviously been worn before, worn often, to the point that some of the embroidery had come unstitched.

Xia shrugged, her eyes sad "Well it did belong to his sister."

He stared at her "What?"

She leant back against the stone table, giving him an unreadable look "I heard Hua talking to you about Yu's people earlier, the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe," he nodded. "There have always been several problems with disguising you as someone from the Earth Kingdom. Your hair to start with, as it's not a style seen here, _especially_ on a woman, but more importantly you're _Water Tribe_. Every part of you is Water Tribe. You don't have that knowledge of our history, our world view, even the way you move is different. _Other_."

He frowned at her "What do you mean by that?"

"You might be clumsy, awkward at times from what I've seen, but even then you have a slight-" she sucked in air through her teeth, "I'm not sure of the best way to put this- _sinuousness_, a slight sway, a smoothness to your movements sometimes, that marks you out. Not that Earth Kingdom girls can't walk with their hips," she laughed, shaking her head at something she was remembering "believe me Earth Kingdom girls can sway their hips with the best of them, but it's _different_. We're different. The Earth weighs on us in a way it doesn't on you. Where an Earth Kingdom girl will walk with only her hips swaying a Water Tribe girl will sway gently with her whole body."

"How would you know that?" he asked, there was hardly a lot of them running about the Earth Kingdom. Well, there _was_ those swamp people, he supposed.

"I fought a waterbender once, a long, long time ago-" she shook her head ruefully "when I was younger. Arrogant. I saw in her some of what I see in you. She beat me like no other person has beaten me before or since, and on that day I came to the conclusion that I would rather face down the Fire Lord, the _Avatar_ himself, than a _strong_, _**angry**_ waterbender. Mind you, I wouldn't mind a chance at Ozai. But _water_- water can quench fire, erode stone, rust iron, even _air_ can do little more than move it."

He wasn't quite sure what she was saying but before he could ask her she clapped her hands together and nodded decisively "Anyway, we've gotten off track. As I was saying- the reason I've chosen to disguise the both of you as members of the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe is due to their own foreignness for most Earth Kingdom people. Since most of them are dead, and the ones that aren't have scattered to some of the most inhospitable parts of the Earth Kingdom and tend to avoid contact with the outside world, it's highly unlikely that many if any are in Ba Sing Se. So if you're strange, _other_, don't know the history or customs that pretty much everyone else in the city would know then people will be happy to put it down to you being from the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe and won't ask questions." She snorted "People are like that. Most people anyway. Of course the fact that women of the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe wear a particular style of bonnet that entirely covers their hair is just a bonus." She pinned him with a look "so get dressed."

He pulled the dress over his head and smoothed it down, avoiding his chest as much as possible, before doing up the toggles from the high, rounded neck to his right armpit and then down to the top of his thigh. The loose dress was split open from there to the ground on both sides, with the embroidery picking out its every edge as well as the cuffs of its long, loose sleeves. When he was done he looked to her to find her examining him with a bitter-sweet look on her face. "Shoes next, I suppose," she said turning back to the wooden chest "and then the bonnet." She turned back around and held out a pair of very strange shoes for him to take. They were black, embroidered, and had very thick, white soles shaped sort of like the bottom of a boat, when he took them from her he discovered they were made out of some hard, heavy wood with a strip of leather hammered into its bottom for traction. They were hard to balance in at too, as the very bottom surface of the soles was about a quarter of the size as where they joined to the rest of the shoes. After a few minutes of frankly embarrassing flailing he managed to somewhat isolate his centre of balance, feeling confident that he'd reached the point where he probably wouldn't end up on his ass _all_ of the time simply by trying to walk two steps.

When he turned his attention back to Xia he could see that she was trying to pretend that she wasn't laughing at him. He gave her a flat look; she was the one who'd picked out the shoes. "Okay, okay," she said when she'd regained her composure "it's time for the bonnet." She handed him a comb and a hair tie, which he took and quickly combed and tied back his hair; once he'd done that she handed him something made out of black cloth and embroidery –the bonnet she'd talked about. It had a stiff embroidered band -not unlike Toph's headdress- that would conceal his hairline attached to a hood of black cloth that was gathered to end at the base of his skull. Padded things that were either supposed to be some sort of flower or highly stylised clouds would cover his ears with ribbons emerging from the bottom of both of them to tie under his chin.

When he'd tied the ribbons he looked back to her, wondering what would happen now. She had a bitter smile on her face, a sad, bitter smile. After a moment of silently contemplating him she walked over and adjusted the bonnet and smoothed the collar of his dress. Eventually she shook her head "Well, you're dressed now. Time to rejoin the outside world." With that she gestured at the screen of rock, making it sink back into the earth and revealing the rest of the camp to them and them to the rest of the camp. He looked around, trying to gauge the reactions of the others and startling in surprise when he saw Toph, who was standing with Yu and had obviously undergone her own transformation while he was away. Underneath a clean bandage her hair had been divided in two and pulled forward into two braids that hung over her ears. She was wearing a smaller version of Yu's clothes –though without the shoes. Ankle length trousers and a short coat over a white, long-sleeved shirt- all heavily decorated with embroidery, though in her case images of fierce animals. She really did look like a boy, even in the heavily decorated clothing she was now wearing- before he really had a chance to contemplate her Yu distracted him by whirling around, stalking out of the campsite like an angry cat.

"Come on," Xia said as she walked past him, empty chest in her arms "I dug out the mirror earlier so you can get a look at yourself." He tottered over to the wagon and the tall, cloth-covered thing leaning against it. She deposited the chest of the ground near the wagon and then pulled the cloth off the object, revealing a full length mirror made of glass and framed in gold and green lacquer. _It looked incredibly expensive_ was the last thing he thought before he got a good look at himself.

_That couldn't be him, could it?_

He stared in shock at the girl staring back at him, because it was a girl, at least as far as he could tell. Tall and skinny with a badly bruised face and frightened eyes (_why were his eyes so frightened?_), but a _girl_.

Funnily enough he looked almost nothing like Katara.

"Perhaps you had better sit down" Xia said, earthbending a seat for him to collapse onto. She turned to face Hua, who was standing there staring after her husband "Bring the boy some tea," she called to the younger woman "and then go to him. You're the only one who has ever been able to comfort him."

Hua did as the old woman had asked, but he could see strain in the line of her shoulders, in the frozen cast to her face. She handed him the cup of tea with a strained smile, looked in on the children who were sleeping near Chen; Bo on the ground wrapped in a blanket and Yi in a small cradle where the old man could keep an eye on her, before walking out of the camp after her husband. He took a sip of the tea and found it bitter, stewed, so he secreted it on the ground near his chair. "Come over here girlie," Xia called out, summoning his companion. Toph inched closer, looking more than a little uncomfortable, "Sit down," Xia said, earthbending another seat next to his; Toph sat down, but she didn't seem all that happy about it. The old woman turned to her remaining adult companion "Are they ready yet Chen?"

The old man waved her off, focussing on whatever he was doing on a portable writing desk "Not yet. It takes time as you well know."

"Feh," Xia exhaled "Well I suppose that gives them time to get themselves sorted out, and gives me time to finish packing." She sighed before declaring "Now," and earthbending a table out of the ground in front of them and then going to the wagon to collect some cloth covered bundles "I've prepared some things for you to take with you when you leave us." She dumped her burden on the table and started to sort through it, dividing it into two groups. "These are yours Sokka" she said, gesturing at the larger group and then at each item as she listed them off.

She pointed at the largest bundle, pale green in colour "These are your everyday clothes," she pointed at a much smaller bundle, this one white "your clothes for when you have to do something messy or difficult," this bundle was a soft yellow and slightly larger than the one before it but still rather small "Your good clothes, in case you get invited to somewhere like the Upper Ring, and these-" she pointed to the pale blue bundle "are your best clothes. For when you meet the Earth King, or a special occasion in which you are asked to represent the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe- or a wedding, I suppose. If it's in the Upper Ring." She paused for a moment, her mind somewhere else, before she pointed to the next bundle, this one dark green "These are your sleeping clothes," and then the pink bundle "and these are your underwear. You should have everything you might possibly need. It should all fit too, as I've always has an eye for sizes."

She obviously wasn't finished yet as she went back to the wagon and returned with a carved rosewood box as well as a larger, plainer box, placing them with the things she'd packed for him The old woman caressed the rosewood box gently "I've packed you some depilatory salve as well as some moisturising cream and a basic first aid kit" she told him "I have also packed you some spare breasts, in case you somehow pop the ones you have now, and a small box of makeup that you can ignore if you want." She gestured at the second box "This contains many things. _Information._ Tea. You might find some of it useful, or even necessary." The old woman tapped the top of the box once before turning to the second pile of things.

"These are yours Toph," she pointed to the first bundle, the white one "Your messy or difficult duty clothes," the largest bundle, a pale grey-green "Everyday clothes," the third bundle, a darker grey-green "Your good clothes," the fourth bundle, an even darker grey-green "your best clothes," the final bundle, so dark a grey-green it was almost black "Your underwear and sleepwear. Understand?" At Toph's awkward nod Xia went back to the wagon, returning with two sturdy packs and carefully putting their new possessions away.

He stared at the mass of stuff as she packed it away "Why so much?"

She didn't raise her eyes from what she was doing but she did respond "None of this is the sort of stuff I- _we_ want to, or _can_, give to just anybody. The people we meet need food, need shelter, need clothes, need help to bury the dead, or a way to find sanctuary. They don't need the relics of things that have passed, but at the end of the day there's no point just keeping all this locked up in wooden chests like sad monuments to the dead," she told him, her voice quiet, soft, "I don't believe that the Roaming Butterly Bat Tribe would have wanted it, not when the alternative is helping companions of the Avatar, not when they could be used to help bring balance back into the world. They were very big on balance, the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe." She stopped what she was doing and caressed the rosewood box once more, snorting a humourless laugh, before returning to packing "There's no point keeping monuments to failure either."

Chen cleared his throat and called out "They are ready Xia."

She clapped her hands together "Wonderful" and stalked over to the old man, taking something from him that she brought over and handed to them. "Your new passports."

He stared at the document in his hands "What?! How?!"

She shrugged "Chen has always been very artistic." That wasn't an answer. That wasn't even the start of an answer, but one look at her face, one proper look, was enough to tell him that was all he was getting.

He gave the document a closer inspection, but as far as he could see they were indistinguishable from the real things that he'd seen so far. Aside from a second seal on each of the passports, near the bottom, looking like a highly stylised butterflybat with its wings tangled around itself, the words 'special considerations: _Roaming Butterflybat Tribe_' written beneath it. Satisfied with the passport's appearance of authenticity he finally let his mind process the name written on it "Xue-Lien Jin Ma?"

Xia nodded "It's a good name."

Toph tugged on his sleeve "Hey, what's my new name?"

He looked over to her passport "Sheng Jin Ma." He turned to Xia "siblings?"

The old woman nodded "Half siblings -same father different mother- it would account for your difference in appearance. The story I have come up with is that 'Xue-Lien's' mother died when you were young, Sokka, and after that your father married a woman from one of the villages to the North West, 'Sheng's' mother, which will explain why Toph knows things about the Earth Kingdom that you don't. Furthermore if 'Sheng's' mother didn't like 'Xue-Lien' and tried to push her out of the family and take over all the 'feminine' tasks it would explain, to anyone who notices, why your knowledge of the 'feminine arts' is lacking. However you became close with your brother, no matter what his mother wanted, and after a sickness or the Fire Nation took your father and his wife you both decided to head for the safety of Ba Sing Se. Alright?"

It sounded reasonable so he nodded "Alright."

"Yeah, alright" Toph added, sounding sort of bored.

"Okay then," Xia declared, clapping her hands together "I'll go fetch the others so we can break camp; I think we've dallied long enough. Your old clothes and the packs you brought with you are in the back of the wagon, if there's anything you need or would like to take with you now would be the time to get it."

As the old woman headed out after Hua and Yu he got to his feet and staggered in his unfamiliar shoes over to the back of the wagon. He heard more than saw Toph do the same and soon enough he was standing next to her and looking at their clothes, which lay in separate piles next to the packs that had belonged to the Fire Nation soldiers. "These are mine, right?" Toph asked as she pointed to her pile of things.

"Yeah," he replied, his voice hoarse. She grabbed her things and wandered back to the table to stuff them into her new pack, leaving him staring at his own possessions. He reached out for his clothes and picked the first garment up, staring at the bloodstained, torn mess that he had once worn. His blood, Toph's blood, the blood of the soldiers Xia had killed- he dropped the piece of cloth reflexively, finding himself wiping his hand on his skirt to try and clean away something that wasn't even real. Avoiding the clothes he reached for his boots, only to find them just as blood-stained and disconcerting as the rest of what he'd worn.

He couldn't do it. Couldn't make himself take them.

Ignoring his clothes he reached for the Fire Nation packs, emptying them of waterskins and the leftover rations but leaving the dagger. He couldn't bring himself to touch that either- _how many people had it killed_? _How many girls like that one in the clearing_? He gave Toph her share of the food and waterskins before packing his own away and sitting back down to await Xia and the others.

---


	8. Part 1, Chapter 7

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 1, Chapter 7.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing. Swearing – a whole fuckton of swearing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: For those of you who are waiting for Zuko to show up, it's going to be a while. They have to reach Ba Sing Se first and then a couple of other things are going to happen, but he _will_ show up then. Sorry. Also –worry not, Xia and co. aren't about to become major characters.  
Furthermore: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing.

---

They were about eight hours from Full Moon Bay when Xia stopped their procession. "We'll split up here I think," the old woman said, frowning in the direction of the city "I'm already nearer to that accursed city than I want to be."

He was tired, sore, dirty, exhausted and had spent virtually every moment since they'd broken camp the day before being bossed around by Xia. She'd declared her intention to have him walking and talking like a girl before they reached Full Moon Bay, so for the better part of a whole day he'd had her poking at him, correcting the way he walked and making him recite various bits and pieces softly, quietly, until she was content with how he sounded. It hadn't been fun. Toph at least should have found it amusing, but she'd been so caught up with Yu that it was almost like she'd forgotten him.

"Here," the old woman said and handed him a small, fat coin purse that jangled when it bounced against his palm.

He peered inside it to find an array of gold, silver and bronze before secreting it in the hidden pocket in the front of his dress, the one he'd only discovered earlier that day, and gave the woman a strained smile "Thanks, for all you've done for us." _To us_.

She nodded to them both "I hope to see you again someday" and turned to lead her companions away from them. Hua and Yu and the children followed after her, the young woman waving to them as they went, Yu ignoring him as the man had done since he'd first been dressed this way but nodding his acknowledgment to Toph.

Chen just shook his head and turned to go, before suddenly turning back around and grabbing his shoulder. "You be careful," the old man said, his gaze burning through him "The world is a dangerous place for a girl." He didn't know how to respond to that, but before he could Chen and the wagon were already moving, soon leaving him alone with Toph.

"Well-" his companion sighed "That was strange."

"I'll say," he replied, staring down at his fake breasts before throwing his head back so he could stare up at the sky. "So why did Yu keep ignoring me?"

He saw her shrug out of the corner of his eye "I think he was surprised when he saw you. I heard Hua say it was because you reminded him of his sister."

"Oh-" he muttered, not sure how to feel about that. After a brief awkward silence he spoke up "Well, should we go?"

"Yeah," she replied, already walking off. He followed her, plodding along with his heavy pack and bedroll on his back; Xia had really packed them too many clothes. The silence that had overtaken them didn't seem keen to abate; he didn't know what to say to her, _she_ didn't seem to know what to say to him- He hated this. He felt so _awkward_. Everything felt so awkward.

They plodded along in silence for what felt like a small eternity getting ever closer to their destination. The forest began to thin and eventually disappeared altogether as the terrain got rockier; eventually they were walking down a narrow winding path between large stone outcrops, fighting their way through patches of thick, brambly scrub that littered the place.

Suddenly Toph grabbed his arm, whispering "Soldiers. Just around the next bend."

He froze, his every sense on alert. After a moment he realised he could hear a voice, faint from where he was standing, creeping closer he determined that it was a man. A _drunk_ man from the slight slur. "-he's abusing his fucking power. He's not the first soldier to take a hit to the balls from some shit who didn't want to be captured and it's hardly fucking likely that he'll be the last. You'd think his artistic talent lay in his shrivelled sack from the way he's been acting. Just because his fuck of a father is War Minister-"

A second, male and equally drunk voice interrupted the first "Fuck off. He doesn't have balls big enough to fit his artistic talent; it'd be like trying to stuff a fucking Elephant Koi into a thimble. He may be able to draw but he's a fucking useless soldier, a fucking dickless man. The shit he'd have us do because he can't do his own fucking dirty work."

"_That's the fucking thing_! _That's what I fucking_ _**mean**_!" the first voice shouted "_Iroh_ would have gutted his soldiers for acting like this.

"Iroh, Iroh, you act like he fucking walked on water," the second voice scoffed "He gave up at Ba Sing Se; he had the city in the palm of his hands but turned yellow-bellied at the last minute. Fucking pathetic."

"His fucking son had just fucking died!" the first voice roared.

He crept closer, peering around the rock in front of them to get a look at the men speaking. They were sitting in a clearing near a small fire with a pot of something cooking away on it. They were both scruffy, unwashed, scarred; their armour laying discarded at the edge of the clearing. A jug containing some kind of alcohol sat abandoned in the dirt between them.

"What the fuck does that matter," the soldier to the right (whose face was a mess of scars and was missing most of his nose) spat, snatching up the jug and taking a deep drink "His duty should have fucking come first, that way we wouldn't be out here with fuckstick Qin ordering us about like he was the fucking Fire Lord."

The soldier to the left, the older one with the truly prodigious beard, snatched the jug back and took his own drink "I fucking served with Lu Ten you know. He was a fucking good soldier. Good man too. He'd have none of this fucking child rape shit. Fuck!" he passed the jug back and spat into the fire "Some of the other grunts we served with were fucking shitholes though, nasty fucks." He stared up into the sky, blankly "One day they grabbed this Earth Kingdom girl -she was maybe fourteen, at the most- and dragged her off behind the latrine. I don't need to fucking tell you what they were doing to the poor kid-" he grabbed the jug off the other man and took a gulp "fourteen, _fuck_, my eldest daughter's fourteen this year-" noseless snatched the jug back "When Lu Ten caught them. I think we all thought he was going to fucking kill them there and then, but somehow he fucking stopped himself, dragged them in front of his father instead. Iroh executed them. Gathered everyone and cut their fucking throats himself, where we could all see it. So, I'm telling you, Iroh would have none of this shit."

"Well Iroh's not here," noseless declared, taking one more drink before handing the jug back over "He's fucking banished or whateverthefuck, so we're all stuck with shitsmears like Qin."

"Don't I fucking know it," beardy sighed "I'm sick of this. So fucking sick of this. I've been a soldier since I was sixteen. I've done my fucking duty." He lifted the jug to his lips but didn't seem to get anything out of it, he dropped his arm back to his side before flinging the jug as hard as he could against the rocky outcrop opposite them snarling "Ozai's fucking nuts, Azula's fucking nuts too from what I hear, Zuko's been banished for fuck knows what reason, Iroh's fucked off with him- what's the fucking point anymore. It's all very well and fucking good if we conquer the whole fucking world, but our ruling family is totally fucked. Fucked."

Noseless stared at him "What the fuck are you saying?"

Beardy dragged another jug out of his pack and pulled the cork out with his teeth before replying "I'm thinking about retiring. Going home. Actually seeing my daughters before they all grow up and I come home to find them married off to some fucking honourless fucksticks that beat the shit out of them and rape their children."

Noseless stared at the other man before snatching the new jug and taking a good few swallows "- shit. You're right. You're fucking right. It's been years since I last saw my kids, and I can barely remember what it's even like to have someone other than myself even pulling on my dick."

"Shit. Seriously?" Beardy scoffed, snatching the jug "Not even a whore? Not all of them turn away Fire Nation, and some of them won't even try to kill you after."

Noseless shook his head "Fuck no. My family follows the old ways. I'm not sure if it'd be the sword I gave her when we started courting or the knife I gave her on our wedding day, but either way my wife would fucking _gut_ me if she found out I'd so much as looked at someone else."

"Fuck-" Beardy forced the jug into Noseless' hands and lurched to his feet, staggering towards where he was hiding "Hey! Who the fuck is out there?!"

He flung himself backwards, back towards Toph, who he tried to pull behind himself. He wasn't sure why he did that; he was unarmed, she was a bender- of the two of them he was probably the most defenceless. "Can you bend?" he whispered to her. She nodded, already preparing herself.

Beardy finally managed to stumble around to where they were, taking one look at them and exclaimed "Aw shit!"

He flinched, couldn't quite help himself. He hated the way he felt right then, so completely and totally helpless.

The man winced at his flinch "I mean. _Sorry_. Sorry Miss." the soldier raised his hands to show he was unarmed and started to back away from them "We're not going to do anything to you, I promise. _I promise_. We're not like that fu-" Beardy choked back what he was about to say "Sorry Miss, sorry about the language, but I _promise_ that we're not going to do anything to you."

Noseless took this awkward silence as an opportunity to shout "Hey! Long! What the fuck's happening?!"

Beardy- _Long_ whirled around and shouted back "Shut it! There's a girl back here!"

"You're fucking kidding me!" Noseless exclaimed, making the sort of racket that probably meant he'd be showing up soon. Sure enough the other soldier was lurching around the bend to stop and stare at them. "Well _fuck_!"

The two men frowned at each other before Beardy addressed him and Toph again "Sorry about his language Miss. We'll just go back to our things, mind our own business, you two can just walk on by us and I promise, _promise_, we won't do a thing to you." The two soldiers turned back the way they'd come and staggered back to their campsite.

After a long, pained silence Toph spoke up, her voice sounding strained, small "Should we trust them?"

"I don't know," he replied, his voice hoarse "I don't know, but the quickest way to get where we're going is past them. Be ready to earthbend if they look like they're going to attack."

She nodded and followed behind him as he crept round the bend. The soldiers watched them with surprisingly sober eyes as they walked slowly, wearily past, darting into the next turn of the path as soon as they could. Once there they wordlessly reach for each other's hands holding on tight as they fled from the scene, from the soldiers, that girl and her brother smeared across the inside of his eyelids every time he blinked. They were lucky, so lucky that those soldiers were tired of the fight, honourable enough not to make them into sport, that their disguises had worked.

So very lucky that their disguises had worked. That Xia had been right.

They ran the rest of the way to Full Moon Bay, only slowing down for the impassive guards to earthbend the entrance open. Once inside he looked around briefly, wondering if Suki had returned to the place and if he'd see her -for some reason he didn't really want to. Didn't want to see her, didn't want her to see him. Not like this.

They made their way to the line in front of the bureaucrat, preparing their passports in advance. When it was their turn in line they just slapped the things down in front of her, not bothering to speak. It would be obvious why they were there. Strangely enough this seemed to please her as she smiled at them while stamping their tickets, handing them back with a "Have a pleasant trip to Ba Sing Se."

---


	9. Part 2, Chapter 1

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 1.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing. Edited thanks to Bluetiger.

---

They'd been in this line to have their passports stamped for a small eternity now, that didn't matter though, at least her feet were back on solid ground. The ferry ride had been hell on Earth. She'd been blind on the boat, become disoriented, seasick, and had been forced to cling to Sokka's hand as he led her around like a child. The food had been terrible, not that there had been much of it, and the other people had avoided the both of them like they had some kind of plague.

It was fitting, with how she felt about herself currently.

She wanted to go home. She didn't want to want to go home, but that didn't change the fact that she did. She was so ashamed of herself, so ashamed, it felt like everything she thought she was was wrong. Was just posturing. How mortifying it was that when times got tough, that when things were hard, part of her wanted nothing more than to run and hide behind the walls and guards of her parents' house. Run so that what had happened to that girl could never happen to her.

She was so ashamed.

Sokka was doing his best, trying his hardest, even sacrificing his manly pride to dress as a girl and it felt like she was just throwing all of that back in his face. He was terrified, she could feel it, frightened for them, frightened for his sister, frightened for Aang, and yet she knew that the last thing he was thinking about was running away from it all.

If Aang had been with them it would have been easier. He was the Avatar, he had to bring balance back into the world, _she_ was there to help him. Without out Aang she was just a girl, just lost, without purpose. They were all just children, she'd never really thought of it that way before, but that's what they were. Children. Children that had set out to face down the might of the Fire Nation, the Fire Lord. It almost seemed like a joke.

She finally understood her parents, why they'd been so preoccupied with keeping her safe. If she had really been that small, helpless girl that they thought she was the outside world would have eaten her alive. She would have ended up like that girl in that clearing. It still made her shiver, the sense of wrong about that scene, the frantic fleeing footsteps that overlayed the dirt, the emptiness echoing in the victims as if something had been cored out of them. She knew what had happened to the girl, it was the thing that her mother and father had often whispered about happening to _her_ if they weren't careful, if she wasn't guarded, if she was allowed helpless into the world. She suspected it had happened to the boy too. She didn't think Sokka had realised that, but then she had felt something in him _crack_ when he first stumbled onto the scene.

Whatever it was still seemed to be broken.

That just made her feel more guilty, so guilty that she didn't even know how to talk to him anymore –she _tried_, but it always felt wrong. It didn't help that he'd been quiet too, not chatty and sarcastic like he usually was. She didn't want them to end up like Xia, like Xia's followers. So angry. So full of hate, and pain and fear that they trembled with excitement at the very thought of killing their enemy. Not that she didn't like them, didn't appreciate what they'd done for her and Sokka- especially after meeting those soldiers- but she didn't want to end up broken. Didn't want Sokka to be broken.

She couldn't keep going like this, terrified. She'd made a choice when she'd left home, she had, and even if that choice seemed like it was the stupidest mistake she could have ever made it wasn't a choice she could go back on. She had to try, try like Sokka was trying, she knew that. Try her best to make things normal again. Even though she wanted to cry she couldn't, even though she wanted to hide she couldn't, even though she wanted to flee she couldn't. She was Toph, she was an earthbender- the best, the strongest earthbender. She was the earth itself, she had to be the earth itself. Strong like the earth itself.

At least she was dressed as a boy; she was safer as a boy. Not completely safe, she didn't feel like she'd ever be completely safe again, but safer. _Before_ she would have argued that her parents' opinions, fears, prejudices didn't matter. That they didn't mean anything to her. That they couldn't touch her. _Now_ she realised that no matter how hard she'd ever fought it, some of their opinions had made their way into her soul. Not the stuff about her blindness, as she'd never really been blind, not in a way that could make her weak, but their opinions about the female gender. The whole world had always told her that girls were weak, that they needed to be protected, that they were always in danger. She didn't know if she'd ever feel safe travelling as a girl again. She understood Yu now, in a way that she hadn't when she'd first met the woman.

Yu had given her all sorts of useful advice on everything from how to walk, to how to bind her chest flat, to how to deal with it if she hit puberty while still in disguise. She might get some use from the frank listing of what herbs would stop her from _bleeding,_ when that started, anyway. It had always sounded like a horrific thing to be afflicted with. They seemed to know a lot about herbs, or at least Xia and Yu did.

Her earthbending had almost recovered now, as had her head. One thing she had to give Xia was that the woman knew what she was doing when it came to medicines. She was a strange woman Xia. They were all strange. If they weren't wearing these clothes, carrying these heavy packs on their backs, she would almost think she'd dreamed the whole thing up while lying in a bleeding, concussed pile on the forest floor. She really hoped she'd never meet them again.

At least they'd given her and her companion a way to get to Ba Sing Se, a way to find the others, it would be better when they found the others. She'd be better. Sokka would be better. Of course they'd actually have to enter the city to do it, which she honestly hadn't been too keen on ever since Sokka had first suggested it. Everything she'd ever heard of Ba Sing Se told her she wasn't going to enjoy herself here.

"Next!" a voice shouted from just up ahead.

"That's us '_Sheng'_," Sokka told her, speaking quietly "Get out your passport." She did as he asked, slapping it down on the desk in front of the bureaucrat.

In a bored voice the bureaucrat told them "It's my duty to inform you that recently instigated policy states that all new citizens of Ba Sing Se may be stopped at any time to have their passports inspected. Any citizen travelling without a valid passport may then find themselves expelled from the city. Do you accept these conditions?" Well, it didn't look like Sokka would be able to go back to dressing as a boy any time soon.

"Yeah, we accept those conditions," she answered for them when he didn't speak. She had to be normal, she had to be strong, if he couldn't be strong she would have to be strong for him. She had to swallow her fear, she would swallow her fear. She would do her best to be normal around him from now on.

The bureaucrat picked up their passports and began to examine them "Sheng Jin Ma? Xue-Lien Jin Ma?" the bureaucrat asked them. They nodded. "Roaming Butterflybat Tribe?" They nodded again "It's almost unheard of to have two of your kind wanting access to Ba Sing Se, so I must ask you why?"

There was a pause in which she could feel the vibrations of fear from Sokka increase before he spoke, his voice quiet and gentle and exactly like Xia had taught him "My father and stepmother died recently, leaving us without family or anywhere to go. Ba Sing Se is supposed to be safe and I want my brother to grow up feeling safe."

"Good enough for me," the bureaucrat said, stamping the passports and handing them back "When the train arrives in the city proper I'd advise asking one of our official guides for directions to the Housing Authority Headquarters. Special consideration is often made for refugees from the Earth Kingdom's minority groups."

"Okay, we'll do that" she said as she dragged Sokka away, wanting to get out of there.

Hopefully they'd find Aang and Katara immediately, and if they had any luck the others would have already informed the Earth King of the eclipse so they could all get out of here as soon as possible, get back to the way their life usually was. Maybe that way she could forget. She dragged Sokka towards the train she could feel sliding into the station up ahead, keeping her ears alert for any mention of the Avatar. She didn't hear anything but a voice calling out "Train now boarding for Ba Sing Se!"

Soon enough they were climbing onto the train for a short wait before the voice from before was echoing through the station "Last call for Ba Sing Se!" and the train was moving. It was really kind of boring sitting in the train to Ba Sing Se with nothing to do and no one to really talk to- Sokka suddenly went stiff next to her. She was about to ask him what was wrong when something that an old woman who was sitting a few seats up from her caught her ear.

"-and one of the Kyoshi warriors. It's inspiring to think that one of our soldiers had a chance to not only work with the Avatar, but save all of Ba Sing Se."

She turned to face the woman "What are you talking about?"

"The _drill_, don't you see it?" the old woman said, sounding exasperated.

"No." She was so sick of this "_Blind_ here."

"Oh, sorry," the woman now sounded embarrassed "There was an attack on the Outer Wall a couple of days ago; I heard some of the guards talking about it. The fire nation attempted to drill through the wall and almost succeeded, but the Avatar, a waterbender, a Kyoshi warrior and one of the soldiers managed to stop it before it was all the way through" the woman paused before speaking again, this time sounding sad "if you weren't blind you could see the drill now, sticking halfway through the wall."

The woman didn't feel like she was lying, but she wanted to hear it from someone she trusted. "Xue-Lien, can you see it?"

"Yes," Sokka said, something like hope in that disturbing version of his voice as he addressed the old woman "So, the Avatar? Did the guards say where he was now?"

She sensed the old woman shake her head "No. It's a pity though; I would like to meet the Avatar."

"Mm" she murmured in response before leaning in to Sokka and whispering "You know what this means?"

She felt him nod "They're _alive_."

"Yeah," she replied "but more than that. They're probably in the city, may have even spoken to the Earth King already."

"Maybe they'll be waiting for us," he sighed.

"Maybe we can _leave_," she added.

They fell back into silence after that, and it wasn't long before the train slid into the station. They left with the crowd, following behind the old woman. In the middle of the station Sokka stopped, probably looking around, she waited by him, wondering what he was up to, until he suddenly started moving, walking with purposeful strides. He stopped again in front of a woman, speaking softly "Hello, are you a guide?"

She felt the woman nod "Hello, my name is Joo Dee. How can I help you?"

"We're looking for the Avatar, we heard he's in the city," Sokka replied.

"Oh," the woman replied, something odd about her voice "I am sorry. I have not heard of the Avatar being in the city."

"Well we heard he was," Sokka replied, that strange voice gaining the slightest amount of force.

"Well perhaps the person who told you that was mistaken" the woman said, her voice unnervingly soulless "as I am sure everyone would know if the Avatar had graced the finest city in the world."

After a pause Sokka spoke "Well, if you find him could you tell him that we're looking for him."

"Of course," Joo Dee responded in that same never changing, overly-cheerful voice "Is there any other way I can help you to enjoy our glorious city?"

There was another pause, an even more uncomfortable one, before Sokka spoke again "The woman who stamped our passports suggested we should ask for directions to the Housing Authority Headquarters."

"Of course," the woman cooed "I can lead you there myself, as it is only a short walk from this majestic station."

Sokka paused again before answering carefully "Okay, we really don't know our way around here."

"Well, follow me," Joo Dee said as she started to walk. They did as she'd commanded, falling into her wake in silence. "You are from the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe if I am correct?"

"Mm-hmm" Sokka murmured in affirmation.

"I do not think I have ever seen a member of your tribe in Ba Sing Se before, it must be an amazing sight for you."

"Mm-hmm."

"But very strange I imagine. I am sure that it will not take long before you fall in love with the city, it is, after all, the finest city in the world."

"Ah, up ahead you can see the Housing Authority Headquarters -it's that building over there with the dark green roof. I am sure that you have been informed that the Housing Authority does its best to ensure that all citizens of Ba Sing Se unable to find housing on their own have a comfortable and safe place to live. I would also like to assure you that the Housing Authority takes special consideration for members of the various minority groups of the Earth Kingdom, assuring them a happy life inside the great walls of this wondrous city."

"Mm-hmm."

Joo Dee led them inside a large building before stopping "Alright, here we are. If you go straight ahead the Office of Minority Housing is the fifth door on the left. I hope you enjoy your stay in Ba Sing Se." With that the woman turned around and walked out, leaving them standing alone amongst milling people.

"What are we doing here _Xue-Lien_?" she snapped at him quietly, not meaning to "We should be trying to find Aang so we can leave."

"I know _Sheng_," he replied, sounding strained "but Ba Sing Se is huge and we don't know how long that might take, so having a base of operations in the meantime is probably a good idea."

She didn't want to agree with him, but he _was_ right. They didn't know how long it would take to find their missing companions, having a base of operations _was_ a good idea -getting some sleep and having something to eat that wouldn't make them sick was an even better one if she was honest. Maybe she'd feel better with some sleep. Maybe he would too. "Alright, alright. Go ahead. Sign us up for a house or whatever."

---


	10. Part 2, Chapter 2

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 2.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing.

---

The bureaucrat in charge of the Office of Minority Housing in the Housing Administration Headquarters looked up as they entered his small, vaguely dilapidated office. He was a small man, extremely short, and plump with a moon-shaped face and slightly dazed eyes that blinked at them from behind thick spectacles. "Yes?" he asked blankly.

He shrugged, feeling that the reason for their presence should be fairly obvious "We were told to come here by the woman who stamped our passports."

"Oh!" the man exclaimed "Are you looking for somewhere to live?"

"Er-" _why did the man look so surprised?_ "Yes?"

"Of course, of course," the man got to his feet, flailing slightly "It's just very, very rare that someone comes into my office. Most members of the Earth Kingdom's minority groups are not too keen on Ba Sing Se-" there he paused, looking quickly around the room before speaking up again slightly louder than before "Which is their problem, as Ba Sing Se is the greatest city in the world. Yes it is. Of course it is."

Toph grabbed his sleeve and whispered in his ear "Is this guy crazy?"

He looked at the man, who was still eyeing the room with suspicion. "I don't know."

"Anyway," the man exclaimed "Enough about the glory of Ba Sing Se. You are looking for a place to live. Is there only the two of you?"

He nodded "Yes."

"Okay. Um-" the man started searching frantically through the piles of paper on his desk "I _don't_ actually have a recent list of what properties we have available, so, um-" he looked blank for a moment before shaking his head "Sit down, sit down" he gestured at the two seats covered in paper in front of the desk before startling and quickly clearing them, dumping the paper on top of the precarious piles on his desk "Sit down. Um- I'll just go get the list from- from- _someone_. Um- and get you some tea. I'll get _someone_ to get you some tea. Be right back."

The little man darted out of the door, leaving them alone with his paper. A quick glance at the pages sitting on top of the piles on the desk showed that he was actually writing a novel – a frankly filthy romance between a plain, bespectacled bureaucrat and a prostitute, set in a brother called The Dragon Peach. A few lines heated his face and made him squirm uncomfortably so he stopped reading, taking a seat in one of the old but surprisingly comfortable chairs that were now clear of the paper he was going to pretend he'd never glanced at. After a moment of determined sulking Toph sat down too, every line of her body expressing resentment.

The door flew open again to admit a slightly frazzled woman holding a tray with two cups of tea and some sweet rice cakes. She looked around wildly for a place to put the tray, but finding nowhere she gave them an awkward look and said "Here's your tea, if you could just take it-?" They both took a cup from the tray as she carefully placed the plate of rice cakes on top of one the piles of paper, watching it carefully until she was sure it wasn't going to unbalance the whole lot. "Okay-" she sighed, relaxing and giving them a slightly strained smile "Yang should be back soon, enjoy your tea." She turned to leave but stopped halfway out the door, spinning around and blurting out "And your stay in glorious Ba Sing Se!" before all but bolting from the room.

There was something more than a little unnerving about all the praise that everyone kept heaping on the city; there was nothing about what he'd seen so far –about the poverty, the dirt, the anger- that made him think that Ba Sing Se was particularly great. Then again he'd only seen a little bit of it so far, and all of that from the Lower Ring, maybe the Middle and Upper Rings were better. Maybe.

He took one of the rice cakes and bit the corner off it, chewing absently. It wasn't that bad -not great and slightly stale, but not that bad- so he picked up the plate and offered them to Toph, who grabbed three and started munching. He'd just finished his first rice cake and was reaching for the next one when the little man (probably 'Yang' but he couldn't be sure) returned, his arms full of paper. "Okay-" he said as he examined his desk for a clear place to put the paper, eventually giving up and dumping it on top of everything else "Okay, so I've got a copy of the property lists. Is there anything you had in mind?" he began to sit at his desk, before stopping halfway down and fixing them with a sharp gaze "Passports! I need to see your passports! I have to make sure you're eligible-" with that the little man dropped unceremoniously into his seat.

They handed the man the documents and watched him squint at them before declaring "_Roaming Butterflybat Tribe! _Fantastic!" The man handed their passports back with a surreptitious look around the room, before pinning him with a look that made him feel more than a little uncomfortable and whispering "Can I see your shoes?"

He stared at the man with no idea of how to respond. _What on earth?_ Thankfully Toph came to his rescue with a suspiciously asked "Are you trying to coerce my sister into something?"

"No! No!" the man exclaimed, blushing bright red and waving his hands spasmodically "I was just curious, that's all. Just curious. There's no way I'd ever exploit my position to do anything inappropriate to one of my clients-" There was an extremely uncomfortable pause in which he wondered if it might be a better idea to try and find a place to live on their own, and then the man was talking again "So, yes. Um- Well, you do qualify, so let's talk housing. Um- Oh! Yes! Just in case you don't know why you were told to come here, organising housing through this office means you only have to pay half rent as the government pays for the rest. Um- yes. So, what do you want out of a place to live? There's only two of you so you won't be eligible for any of the really big apartments in the Lower Ring- Oh! Yes! You're only eligible for housing in the Lower Ring as the Middle and Upper Rings house the more important members of Ba Sing Se society and you are new refugees- um. No offence meant, of course."

He felt faintly guilty for possibly taking a place away from actual members of a minority group, but then the man had said that he rarely got people in his office. It was still kind of uncomfortable though, but that was the path Xia had set them on, and the half-priced rent would be good. As it was he had no idea what to say to then regarding what sort of property they were after, only partially because the man made him uncomfortable. "Do you have anything with a stone floor?" Toph asked, taking the pressure off him.

The man frowned, flicking through the papers he had brought with him, before his face lit up and he dragged one from the bottom of the haphazard pile to the top "Yes! Yes we do, only one I'm afraid. It's apartment number nine in a small, nine apartment block." The man took a deep breath before launching into a spiel "One of the oldest apartment complexes in the Lower Ring, it was originally built by the great earthbender architect known only to us as 'Lin' in order to house the families of some of our earthbender soldiers -though 'grown' may be a better word that 'built'. The apartment is solid stone, with two bedrooms and central cooking fire and hearth. The complex has its own well located in the small walled courtyard next to the building, as well as a large outhouse complex at the rear of the courtyard. The whole apartment complex has undergone maintenance over the last decade, with the apartment in question having individual attention paid to it before being offered for rent. The rent is cheap at only eight silver a week, or the equivalent, with your minority discount, and the apartment comes fully furnished and stocked with a month's supply of wood."

Toph snorted "What's wrong with it?"

The man blinked at her blankly "What do you mean?"

She directed the worst of her blind, blank looks at him "In what way do we qualify for a fully furnished, two bedroom, stone apartment in a complex with its own walled courtyard?"

The man shrugged, slightly uncomfortably, and spoke carefully "It's not exactly in the best neighbourhood, and there's not really in easy access to any of the facilities people want these days- like the public baths-"he took a deep breath and began to babble "but aside from that people like small, discrete cooking fires -which this does not have- and the current fashion is for wooden floors, plastered walls, places that don't look grown out of the earth itself." The man fidgeted a bit "and there's the fact that 'Lin' built the apartment complex for use by other earthbenders, so some of the things we could advertise as 'features' aren't useable by most of the population. It's really fine aside from that..."

"We'll take it!" Toph declared, before the man could get started again.

"Really? Fantastic!" the man's eyes darted across the surface of his desk before he grabbed the papers he'd fetched earlier, put them on his lap, and unceremoniously began to dump piles of paper from his desk onto the floor, seemingly in search of something. "Aha!" he declared, pulling out a box of stone seal-stamps and quickly inking one, which he pressed onto the page describing the apartment they'd agreed to rent. He shuffled the papers on his lap again before pulling out a form, which he filled in rapidly before stamping it with three of the other stamps from his box. "I'll just get you to sign this," the man said, handing over the form and a quill "here," he pointed to a blank box on the form "here," another blank box "and here," one more blank box. After putting his teacup on the ground near his chair he signed his new name quickly in all three of the boxes, before the man snatched the form back and proceeded to stamp it another four times; three of those over his signature, the final one in the only remaining blank box at the bottom of the sheet.

The man slapped the form down on top of the page about the apartment and grabbed another form which he filled out even quicker than the first one, before splattering that one with a flurry of stamps too. "Okay, um-" the man murmured as he admired his handiwork, "So- this is done. Now all you have to do is take this form to the landlady, who lives in apartment one in your new building and give her the first four week's rent, after which she'll give you your keys. Um-"

"Ookaay," Toph (who seemed to have taken control of the situation a while back) said as if she was talking to an idiot "But you haven't told us where the apartment is."

"Oh!" the man exclaimed, "Of course. I'll just write you some directions." He fished around for a clean piece of paper before giving up and grabbing one of the blank forms, scrawling something on it and handing it and the second form over. "Um- well- I suppose this is goodbye, unless you have some problem with the apartment, in which case come back and I'll sort it out for you. Um- yes. Goodbye."

He took the papers and got to his feet to leave, followed after a moment by Toph who snatched the last of the rice cakes as she did so. "Goodbye" he said softly, turning to leave.

"Yeah, bye" Toph added, stomping out after him. As he shut the door after himself he noticed that the little man was watching him, or, more accurately, looking from his shoes to his ass and back again in this relaxed, creepy, skincrawling way.

---


	11. Part 2, Chapter 3

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 3.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing. Crazy people.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing.

--

'It's not exactly in the best neighbourhood' was apparently code for 'It's on the edge of the red-light district.' Not actually inside the red light district, not quite, though they'd had to pass _through_ the red light district to get there in the first place. However by the time they'd reached their new apartment complex the brothels had thinned out, as had the shops selling worrying things, and the shifty looking bars.

The apartment complex was a squat stone monstrosity that seemed almost grown out of the earth itself; that impression was helped by the very possibly _centuries _of lichen covering the stone so it appeared a mottled grey-blue-green. It looked old, very old, but at the same time it looked almost unmovable, as if it had colonised this part of the Lower Ring way back in the beginning and no one was getting it to move now. It was also considerably smaller than most of the apartment blocks that he'd seen up to this point (including the huge, more modern yet massively more dilapidated mess that loomed over its left side) obviously having been built back before Ba Sing Se was full to bursting with refugees -with more arriving every day. There were three massive chimneys emerging from the centre peak of the roof, one near the front of the building, one at what had to be the centre of the building, and the final one near the back of the building, each of them spilling smoke into the late afternoon air.

On the left side of the building were latticed stone balconies that pressed close to the five story behemoth of an apartment complex that overshadowed their new building, and on the right was the walled stone courtyard that the man possibly known as 'Yang' had talked about, pressing close to a small noodle restaurant. The walled courtyard had a large, elaborately carved stone gate that seemed permanently fused shut; this was supported by the smaller wooden gate next to it, sitting in a gap in the fence that had obviously been knocked out to accommodate it.

"Are we going in or what?" Toph asked, radiating impatience.

He glanced from her to the apartment complex to the street with its assortment of colourfully dressed people and back again. _Katara was going to kill him when she found out about this._ "Yeah, I suppose we are."He stepped forward and pushed open the wooden gate, revealing the currently empty courtyard; the well sitting in pride of place, surrounded by decorative stone paving. They'd been told to see the landlady in apartment number one, which was easy to find as all the apartments on the ground floor opened into the courtyard, while the ones on the first and second floors opened onto uncovered stone walkways accessible by steep staircases near the back of the building.

He walked between two of the stone pillars that held up the first floor walkway and knocked on the stone door with the number _one_ carved deeply into its surface. After a moment the door was pushed open revealing a middle aged woman, who squinted at him curiously "Yes?"

"We're here to rent apartment nine?" he said, uncertainty making it a question "The man in the Office of Minority Housing in the Housing Administration Headquarters sent us." Recalling what probably Yang had said he held out the form for the woman to take and fished the money pouch Xia had given him out of his pocket, counting out four gold pieces, ten of the larger silver coins and twenty of the largest bronze ones–more than half the money Xia had left them and all of everything that wasn't bronze. He stuffed the considerably deflated pouch back into his pocket as he watched the woman inspect the form.

"Yes, yes," she murmured "This is all good. I'll take you up to see the place before I get your money, it's too much trouble if you decide you don't want it _after_ you've paid. You're not a prostitute are you?"

"What?!" he squawked as he stuffed the coins into his pocket "No!"

She peered at him suspiciously for a moment before nodding "Good, good. I'll have no prostitutes renting an apartment from me."

"Are you going on about that again?" an old woman's voice called from within the apartment.

The woman rolled her eyes "Papa left the apartment to _me_ mother. If I don't want prostitutes living here then it's my right not to have prostitutes living here."

"Back in your father's day we always had at least one prostitute in the building," the old woman replied, hobbling up behind her daughter "and they were always clean, always payed their rent on time, never made any trouble. Can you say the same about Yen? Can you say the same about Cho and that husband of hers?"

"_That_ was back in Papa's day," the woman snapped at her mother "Things are _different_ these days. Papa would agree with me. Now, do me a favour and get the key to number nine."

The old woman dangled the key in her daughter's face "I'll come along too, I like to get to know the people that will be living in our building."

The landlady rolled her eyes and snatched the key "If you must." She marched out of the apartment and in the direction of the stairs "Follow me."

They did as she'd asked, falling into step with the old woman. "I'm Fang Yong," the old woman introduced herself "and that's my daughter Min. Min Chan."

"Xue-Lien and Sheng Jin Ma," he replied.

"That's the outhouse back there," Min declared from up ahead, gesturing at the building lodged in the back right hand corner of the courtyard "It's kept pretty clean."

"Yeah," added Fang "By Ming in number six."

Her daughter ignored her as she started up the stairs "The apartment you've signed up for is on the top floor, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem as there's only two flights of stairs. It's quite a small complex, nothing like those monstrosities they build these days, and everyone's pretty friendly."

"Aside from Yen in number three," her mother interrupted "he's a pervert and a lech, especially when he's got drink in him, and he's _always_ got drink in him. It's best to keep away from him unless you want sweaty palms stuck up your skirts."

"That's enough mother!" Min snapped.

Fang ignored her "Cho and her husband De are another problem; they're loud, obnoxious and all but feral. Or at least Cho is. _Especially _if she thinks De has his eye on you. Oh, and then there's Ae in number seven. She's quiet enough but she'll treat you like you're a plague-rat if you so much as try to say hello. You'd better get used to it though. We used to have this lovely girl in number eight, An, but Min here discovered she was working in one of the brothels, so you and Ae will be all alone on the top floor."

Min whirled around halfway up the stairs "Will you shut up!"

"I'm just being honest" her mother replied with an insincere smile.

"No you're not," Min snarled "you're just punishing me because Papa left the building to me instead of you."

They all stopped on the first floor walkway, getting out of the way so a woman with two small children could pass them, before heading up the next flight of stairs. "That's Ming and her children, from number six" Fang said "She's obsessively clean, that one, but nice enough."

When they had reached the second floor walkway Min stomped directly to the door of the apartment at the rear of the building, opening it to reveal darkness. "You'd better wait out here," she called out, entering the apartment "I need to light some lamps if you want to see anything."

Slowly the space beyond the door became illuminated, revealing stone, stone and more stone. "Most of the windows in this place have stone coverings that are difficult to work out, let alone move, without the use of earthbending," said Min as she gestured for them to enter "The apartments are quite light if you have an earthbender in the family; my daughter-in-law is one -though not very strong- and Ming's husband is one, and I suspect Ae may be one, but with her you'd never know. However if you don't have an earthbender in the family then it _is_ possible to make do with lamps and the occasional bit of assistance from someone who is one."

The apartment wasn't particularly big, not that he'd expected it to be from the size of the building. It was bare stone inside, like it was outside -though without the lichen, and dominated by a massive, round, chimney-ed fireplace. It had to be the central cooking fire that maybe Yang had talked about, as even though it was empty of fire it was filled with various pots, pans, racks, sheets, and strange things with hooks and chains. The woman gestured towards the fireplace "You share a chimney with number three and number six, they go all the way through the building you see, and I had them all swept last week so you shouldn't have any trouble with getting a fire lit. Your wood's over there-" she pointed to the stack leaning haphazardly in the corner near the padded floor cushions and rickety old cupboard that seemed to constitute 'fully furnished'. At the back of the room was two rounded stone protrusions, with a narrow hallway between them "Those are your bedrooms back there," Min said when she saw him looking "The entrance to each of them and the door to your balcony is located in that little hallway there, which means you have more living space."

He walked across the room and into the hallway to get a better look. The back door was stone like the front door, though it had a small amount of decorative lattice near the top that should let in a small amount of light in the morning. It also had no doorknob. The bedrooms both seemed to have sliding stone doors that were fused eternally open, two wooden screens having been put in place to do their job sometime recently. He pushed the left one aside and peeked in the room to find it small, almost cave like, with a stone shelf along the wall they would share with number eight covered in a thin, obviously new mattress. A bed. On the opposite wall, next to the doorway, there was an old wooden chest and a small wooden bathtub. Leaving that room he pushed open the door to the room of the right, revealing a wider stone bed in the middle of the floor with its own new, thin mattress and a matching old, wooden chest against the wall at the foot of the bed.

"So," Min asked when he emerged from that section of the apartment back into the main room "what do you think?"

"It's a shit-heap," Fang declared before any of them had the chance to open their mouths "Just like it's always been."

"Oh for the love of-" Min hissed "You can always go and live with your precious Mei-Chu and her husband if you don't like it here _mother_."

Fang ignored her daughter, instead patting him on the arm and leaning close as if she was about to confide in him "My other daughter, my sweet Mei-Chu, married the noodle maker next door. They've branched out into dumplings and steamed buns recently; she always was brilliant, my Mei-Chu."

Min waved her mother's praise of her sister away with a "Brilliant, _**fat,**_ and oblivious to anything but the needs of her stomach."

"My poor martyred daughter," Fang cooed with false sympathy "what are you going to do when the red light district swallows us all whole? Will you still hold out, act like a bastion of false morality, when this street becomes full of brothels and bars and whores?"

Min glared at her mother "Why are you so convinced that is our future? We are not the only family or business in this neighbourhood that has been here since the founding of the Lower Ring."

"There're more and more refugees arriving every day," Fang scoffed "the city is full to bursting as it is. Or, should I say, the Lower Ring is full to bursting. More _**hungry**_ men. More widowed, starving women. The red light district has just gotten bigger and bigger since the brothels were all forced into the Lower Ring, and soon enough it will run out of room and where are we? In the path of the flood, that's where."

"Oh shut up," Min groaned "Do you really think the Dai Li will let that happen? And even if it does, not all men are monsters and not all whores are victims, or women. Your reasoning is stupid at best and I'm sick of hearing you talk." She turned to them "What do you think of the apartment?"

He thought it was dark, depressing and run by people who may have serious mental problems. However, he had no idea of how to find another place to rent- other than go back to the office of possibly Yang, the very probably perverted bureaucrat- and he was getting the feeling that it may be hard for them to afford somewhere else. Not a thought that he found particularly pleasant.

He could see Fang open her mouth, undoubtedly to start up again, but before she could Toph yelped "Its fine! We'll take it! Give the woman the money!" in an effort to prevent them from getting trapped for another round of mother-daughter warfare.

He quickly fished out the coins and handed them over to Min, who counted them quickly before secreting them somewhere and handing over the key. With a glare at her mother their landlady left, Fang smiled and bowed lightly before turning to go herself, calling back "You come to see me if anything goes wrong, never mind that daughter of mine" as she left.

When she was gone there was a long, awkward pause before Toph sighed "Is everyone in this city crazy?"

He snorted "Everyone we've met so far."

She shook her head and tsked "Do you want me to open the windows now?"

He considered that for a moment before shaking his head "It's already almost dark outside so there's not much point, maybe in the morning?"

She shrugged "Yeah, whenever you want," and dumped her pack on the floor before flopping down herself "Come on, relax. We're here now."

His stomach let out a fierce and unhappy growl, making him realise that he was hungry, had probably been hungry for a while but had been too busy ignoring it. They didn't have much food, and what they had would be cold and stale and not all that filling, and he felt like something filling. With a shrug he said "Let's go next door and get some noodles. Once we've eaten we can come back here and get some sleep so we can spend tomorrow looking for the others."

Toph groaned and levered herself back onto her feet "Sounds like a plan."

---


	12. Part 2, Chapter 4

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 4.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing. Sorry for not getting back to anyone last time, and sorry for how long it's been since the last chapter was posted.  
SPECIAL NOTE: I know a lot of you are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Zuko and Iroh, so I feel I should warn you that it's going to be a while. You see, the way Zuko and Sokka run into each other is sort of important to how the fic will go, and I need to do some set-up work first. If you really can't wait then, as much as I hate writing this, it's probably best to stop reading now.

---

Ba Sing Se was big. Massive even. They'd spent the whole day before searching for Aang and Katara; asking around, looking everywhere they could, but no one had heard that the Avatar was in town, no one had seen people matching their missing companions' descriptions, and everyone they'd met seemed to think that _if_ the Avatar did happen to currently be in Ba Sing Se then he'd be staying in the Upper Ring -and good luck getting in there if you lived in the Lower Ring.

It was annoying. Or at least _she_ found it annoying; Sokka seemed to find it more disheartening than anything else. That same thrum of broken pain kept running through him, though he seemed to be trying to ignore it, and it just got worse every time they brought up their missing companions, worse still if she brought up Katara. Because _he_ never did. It was almost like he was pretending he didn't even have a sister. It was easy thinking about Sokka's feelings, she didn't even want to contemplate her own. She wasn't going to contemplate her own. Their time in Ba Sing Se, short as it had been so far, had given her the chance to focus on finding the others and escape them for a while.

It was early and he was still asleep, curled into that little ball in the middle of the main room of their new apartment. They hadn't even moved in properly yet. That first night after they'd come back from '_The Spring Sparrowkeet Noodle –and-as-of-last-week-Dumpling-and-Steamed-Bun- Shop_' they'd been so tired that they'd just collapsed fully dressed in the middle of the room after pulling their bedrolls off their packs. The next morning they'd been up early and searching the city on a breakfast of leftover dried fish, buying things from roadside stalls when they got hungry, only to come back late and end up eating at '_The Spring Sparrowkeet_' again and collapse once more onto their bedrolls.

It couldn't go on like this. It had become obvious that Sokka had been right, that Ba Sing Se was so big that this might take a while. Beyond that it had also become obvious that they were going to run out of money pretty quickly if they kept up the way they'd been going. The final thing that had become obvious was how badly _he_ at least smelt by now; she probably did too, but it was hard to smell yourself, or at least _she'd_ never cared that much about that sort of thing to develop much of a sense of her own body odour. So it was probably time to move them in, get settled, buy some actual food and- _she stood up and got into position_ -open the windows.

She reached out with her earthbending and grabbed the shutter covering the large, ornate window that made up at least half of the rear wall of the apartment complex. With a motion of her hands she twisted it, undoubtedly letting light that she couldn't see in through the myriad of decorative slits. Though the change must be fairly noticeable from the way he mumbled and rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head. After the big one was opened she reached for the small, again highly decorative, windows that ran across near the ceiling of the wall with the front door and slid them open. As she was blind it didn't really matter to her, but she hoped that living somewhere that was no longer the next best thing to a cave might have a positive effect on Sokka.

A bath might have a positive effect too.

Water would have to be fetched from the well, and it was cold enough this morning that it would need to be heated before it'd make a pleasant bath. Of course Sokka probably wouldn't have a problem bathing in icy water, not with where he came from, but she was aware that some people found hot baths relaxing and she sort of wanted him to relax, even if it probably wouldn't make her feel any better. He'd always been good to her, was still being good to her, didn't treat her like Katara did sometimes –like there was something wrong with her rejecting her 'feminine' side- or like Aang did sometimes, like what she was was so totally alien that he couldn't even begin to understand her. No, Sokka had always taken her for what she was, never tried to change her, done his best to save her. She wanted to do her best for him too, and not just because her heart used to beat a little faster around him before everything that had happened. It had been a crush, and one that seemed to have disappeared somewhere in the horrible days since they'd been sucked into the Serpent's Pass. Anyway, she'd much rather be his friend; she'd never really had friends before.

As she didn't trust her own ability to get a fire started she would have to wake him up and make him do it. Or, you know, _ask_ him to do it. With that thought in mind she wandered over to him and nudged him saying "Sokka, Sokka, come on, it's time to get up."

"Mnergh," he mumbled, squirming deeper into the bedding.

"Sokka, come _on_," she whined, nudging him again.

"Alright, alright," he groaned, flailing at her with his arm "I'm awake. Stop poking at me." He dragged himself into a sitting position and yawned hugely, greeting her with a "Hey," followed shortly by "Oh, you opened the windows."

She shrugged, "Yeah."

"It's nice. I mean, I see what the landlady said about it being light in here if you have an earthbender," he murmured.

"Yeah?" she asked, wondering vaguely what it was like if you could see.

She could feel him nod "Yeah." There was an awkward pause before he spoke again "Toph?"

"Mm-hmm."

He squirmed a bit, uncomfortable with whatever he was about to say "Ba Sing Se's bigger than I thought it was going to be, much bigger, and no one seems to either know where the others are or be willing to help us."

She nodded, muttering "I noticed that" and wondering what he was getting at.

He paused again, scratching awkwardly at the back of his neck "We also don't have much money left, definitely not enough to keep on eating in restaurants for much longer-" he trailed off.

After a while of listening to him not speaking she ran out of patience, snapping "Is there a point that you're going to get to sometime soon?"

He made a reluctant noise in the back of his throat, though it seemed to be directed internally more than externally, as if what he was thinking irritated him on a personal level. Crawling out of his haphazard bed and stiffly to his feet he turned to her and began to speak, rapidly "So here's what I think: _One_, we need to prepare ourselves for the chance that it may be a week or so before we find the others. _Two, _we need to move in here properly, we have beds that have to be more comfortable than the floor so we might as well use them. _Three,_ considering the state of our finances I think we should go to the market and buy some proper food that we can try to cook ourselves, because it has to be cheaper than eating out constantly, _has_ to be, and we can't afford to keep wasting money the way we have been. _Four_, we should use some of the money we have left to make some 'missing' posters for Kata-" he paused, swallowed hard, "the _others_- and put them up around town so that if they see them they'll come and find us, or if someone else sees _them_ they'll contact us."

He seemed to be waiting for her to protest, which she wasn't going to do as she was too busy being relieved that she wouldn't have to be the responsible one, she didn't know how to be the responsible one. "Sure, there's just one thing I wanna add to that."

"Yeah?" he asked, carefully.

"A nice, hot, relaxing bath. For you. Because you stink," she replied with a smile. A little forced, but a smile nonetheless.

"_I_ stink?" he snorted "If I'm having a bath then you're having one too."

She put her hands up in mock defeat "Okay, okay, but if any of us are having a bath any time soon someone's going to have to get the fire lit so we can warm up some water. And by _someone_ I mean _you_." He nodded and made his way over to the fireplace, beginning to remove the various things that were lodged inside of it. "I'm going to the outhouse," she called out as she walked over to the door "and then I'll fetch some water." He murmured an acknowledgement but didn't turn away from what he was doing.

She made her way downstairs and towards the outhouse building as quickly as possible, all too aware of the pressing need of her bladder now that she'd acknowledged it. Thankfully that Ming woman wasn't there scrubbing something like she had been the other few times that she'd entered the building. She slid into one of the stalls divided by floor to ceiling woven bamboo mats with rough, cheap cloth curtains slung across the openings. Glad that the design of the place meant that she was fully concealed and didn't have to attempt any of the frankly disconcerting techniques that Yu had told her about for peeing standing up.

When she was done and had washed her hands she headed outside to the well where a couple of women were too busy gossiping and not doing their laundry to notice her. When she heard what they were saying she froze, irritation washing over her.

"-strange aren't they? Always running about the place, looking for someone I think," said the plump one standing barefoot and wearing something made of cheap cloth.

"And the girl, have you seen her _face?_" the skinny one replied in a tone full of delighted scandal "Looks like someone's beaten her."

"I wonder if it was the boy, he looks the sullen- the _mean_- type," the plump one replied. She felt her fists clench, _how dare that woman talk about her like that, as if she'd ever do something like that to Sokka. Sure she may have hit him once or twice, but she'd never __**beat**_ _him_.

"Ooh, do you think so?" the skinny one cooed "I've been wondering if maybe she had a boyfriend who did it, maybe the person they're looking for."

The fat one snorted "If her boyfriend _had_ done it then _why_ would they be looking for him?"

"Well then maybe it was a Fire Nation soldier," the skinny one breathed, ignoring the fat one's attempts to hush her "Maybe he stole her from her boyfriend, or maybe even _husband_, and _**ravished**_ her, only for her brother to rescue her and bring her to the safety of Ba Sing Se to await the arrival of the man she loves-"

The sheer delight the woman added to the word 'ravished' was more than a little disturbing, as was her and Sokka being the objects of the kind of gossip they were engaging in, so before they could say another word she stalked up to them and snapped "Maybe you old bats oughta shut up!"

The skinny woman gasped and flinched back, acting like she'd been gravely insulted. She ignored both of them, instead focussing on the well. The bucket was made of wood, which wouldn't do, so with a simple gesture she earthbended four buckets out of the rocks that were lying discarded near the wooden gate, rocks which she thought had once been part of the courtyard wall before that gate was added. One at a time she lowered the buckets down the well, until they were all full, and then turned to go, earthbending them along behind her.

After a moment's pause she heard the fat woman whisper "Definitely the boy that did it. Rude, _mean_ little shit," to the skinny one.

---


	13. Part 2, Chapter 5

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 5.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: I'm moving house in a couple of weeks so updates may be a little irregular for a while, sorry :)  
SPECIAL NOTE: I know a lot of you are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Zuko and Iroh, so I feel I should warn you that it's going to be a while. You see, the way Zuko and Sokka run into each other is sort of important to how the fic will go, and I need to do some set-up work first. If you really can't wait then, as much as I hate writing this, it's probably best to stop reading now.

---

He'd had to unpack an awe-inspiring collection of things for cooking out of the fireplace before he could set the fire that was currently happily crackling away. There'd been lidded pots of various sizes, pans, racks and shelves for cooking over the flames or smoking food, a kettle, a spit, chains with loops at one end and hooks at the other for hanging the pots over the fire, and numerous other things he whose purpose he couldn't even guess at. The fireplace itself had numerous hooks and little protuberances that all of these _things_ could be hung or rested on- suggesting that the man who built it had something of an obsession with food.

It had taken him a long time to get to sleep the night before, no matter how tired he'd been. He'd been hoping, praying, that they'd miraculously find the others; that it wouldn't take the days, weeks (_months_) he feared it would take before they were reunited. The day before felt wasted, the money they'd spent definitely had been, and now things were even more difficult.

As he'd said to Toph before she'd gone to fetch the water they needed to move in properly, they needed to buy their own food, they needed to get some posters made. He also needed to get some weapons, but that would have to wait- good weapons weren't cheap and their financial situation- it wasn't good. Not good at all. He was worried. Really, honestly, worried that they wouldn't even have enough cash for the food and the posters. At least they had the apartment for the next four weeks; paying rent would just be one worry too much.

If they could find the others soon it wouldn't matter so much. Maybe it was just good luck, but it had been a while since they'd had any serious money problems. The trouble was how to find the others. Ba Sing Se was just so _big_ and methodically searching the city would be problematic; aside from the size of the place there was the fact that they didn't have access to the Upper Ring without an invitation or a job there (and from what he'd heard it was almost impossible for a new arrival in the city to get one of those), and the Upper Ring was where he suspected that the others would be living if they _were_ living anywhere in the city. Of course Aang would probably want to search for Appa, which would probably lead him into the Middle and (especially) _Lower_ Rings. There was also the possibility that his sister (and Suki, if she was still with them) might visit the various salons and boutiques and spas that he'd heard were in the Middle Ring, as he imagined she was probably pretty stressed by now and might take the opportunity to relax. So it wasn't _completely _impossible that they'd run into them in the Lower or Middle Rings, the problem was that the city was so big and they couldn't be everywhere at once. So- _posters_.

Hopefully it wouldn't take long for them to get a response or to spot the others themselves, but if it did- he was going to have to find some way of making money, and as stealing was out of the question and in the Lower Ring begging wasn't going to get you much he was left with only one other option. He was going to have to get a job. Which would cause its own set of problems. It wasn't like he could search for the others and work at the same time- of course Toph could still look for them while he was busy and he could take a job that was only part time. _What_ _sort of job though_. Hunting, gathering, defending his tribe, helping the Avatar- he didn't exactly have a skill set that translated well to finding a job in Ba Sing Se. A woman's job at that- as, for all intents and purposes, that was what he was trapped as.

If they had more money, lots more money, he'd see about getting a new passport and some new clothes- there had to be forgers in the city, it was too big for there not to be. However they didn't have the cash for either of those things, had rented this apartment that was almost too expensive to be afforded even at half rent, suspected that paying full rent for any apartment that wasn't a complete pit would be impossible anyway, and couldn't risk being thrown out of Ba Sing Se for not having a passport. In other words they were stuck. _He_ was stuck was more like it, as Toph seemed content as she was.

The door suddenly slammed open to reveal Toph's scowling visage. "Stupid old biddies need to mind their own business!" she hissed as she stalked into the room, followed by four stone buckets full of water which she set down on the floor roughly, making small amounts of water slop over their rims.

He watched her fume for a moment before asking "What happened?"

"Nothing!" she snapped, before shrugging uncomfortably "Just- people being people really."

"Well, we can't have that," he tried to joke, but it fell flat. Really, really flat. After an awkward pause he reached over to the largest of the collection of pots- a massive metal thing with a ring of stone under its rounded lip that would all but fill the fireplace - he removed its lid and grabbed the two largest chains and hooked their looped ends over the hooks high up in the fireplace before attaching their other ends to the pot. Once he was done he looked over to Toph "Can you earthbend the buckets to fill this pot?"

She nodded and did as he'd asked, filling the pot almost three quarters full before he told her to stop. There was almost two buckets of water left, but if they heated the water over the fire hot enough that wouldn't matter. With nothing to do now but wait he made his way to his feet and turned to her "We might as well get unpacked while the water heats; what bedroom do you want?"

She shrugged "Don't care-" before shaking her head "Wait, no. I'll have that one," she pointed to the bedroom that shared a wall with number eight "It's got less windows." She grabbed her pack and gathered her bedroll off the floor, heading towards the bedroom she'd chosen.

"Okay," that made sense; it wasn't like she'd need them "Did you open the windows in the other bedroom earlier?"

Just outside of the corridor she paused "No. But I'll do that first."

"Thanks," he called out as he checked how the water was going, before making his way to his feet and picking up his own bedroll and pack. He'd ended up with the bedroom with the bigger bed in the centre of the room. It's depressing interior was illuminated by the small windows high up in the building's back wall and filtering in weakly from the larger, more ornate window on the wall leading to the balcony.

He dumped his bedroll on the bed's thin mattress, half-heartedly making the bed, before dragging his pack to the wooden chest near the foot of the bed. Dropping to his knees he started to pull the various bundles and boxes from his pack. He put the water-skins and remaining provisions to one side before grabbing the first of the bundles, the one supposedly containing his messy-work clothes. He laid that and the bundles containing his good clothes and the alleged 'festival clothes' in the chest without opening them; he hoped he wouldn't need any of them, so there was no use in acknowledging them more than he had to. After that he added the bundle apparently containing sleepwear and picked up the bundle containing his everyday clothes- a quick glance down at himself told him exactly how filthy his clothes had become since he'd first put them on. Filthy- he sniffed them cautiously- and _smelly_. So clean clothes it would have to be, and laundry expenses too- unless he washed them himself.

When he'd gotten the bundle open he found that the clothes inside it had been further divided into other bundles, each tied with string and bearing a piece of paper with a diagram of what the clothes were and in which order they were worn. Xia's handiwork, he'd guess. He grabbed the first bundle, not looking too closely at the picture of what he'd chosen, and stuffed the rest into the trunk.

Then there was only the bundle containing the underwear, and the two wooden boxes left. He started with the rosewood box, quickly inspecting its contents and finding it pretty much as Xia had described. He picked up a couple of bars of soap, one wrapped in delicate rice paper and the other wrapped in rough, brown paper. He opened the rice paper one to find the same pinkish soap that he'd been using since meeting up with Xia, when he turned the other cake around to open it he found the words 'for the laundry' written in Chen's careful hand. He dumped that one back in the box and then put the box in the trunk. As far as he was concerned his wounds were healed enough not to need further treatment.

He looked at the two remaining items before making himself reach for the underwear bundle. He was not a coward. Aside from the white cotton socks the bundle contained silk, the rest of it was all silk. The underwear, the other bodice things for the fake breasts. Silk. Not a single pair of underwear in cotton, linen, hemp, bamboo or any other type of practical fabric. Just silk. Staring at the mass of smooth, slippery fabric he couldn't help wonder _why? Why had Xia given him nothing but silk? So much silk? The fabric was hardly cheap._ He grabbed a pair of socks and then the first pair of underwear (a soft, minty green) and the first bodice (pale yellow) that he laid hands on, dropping the rest into the chest as quickly as he could.

Finally all he had left was the wooden box that contained _information, tea and things that he might find useful or necessary_; as he had no idea what that meant he carefully opened the box and examined its insides. Aside from the paper bag that had to be the tea what it apparently contained was scrolls. At least thirty of the things in various sizes, each labelled in small, careful script like that on their fake passports. Chen's work then. There was a note near the top, in Xia's chaotic script: 

'_This is the sort of thing we give to most people we meet on the road who don't really know what they're doing, how to survive. I've added a few things that you might find interesting, but then again you might not. _

_We may meet again someday, we may not, but from the experiences of my long life there's one piece of advice that I can give you that I wish I'd heeded myself. __Information is important, __always remember that; __the more you can learn about your enemy the better off you'll be, the more they can learn about you the worse off you'll be.__ Try not to let other people get the upper hand. –Xia'_

He frowned at the note; he could see the sense in her advice but he wondered why she'd chosen to share it with _him_, and in such a way. Was there something in this box that reminded her of her 'failure,' whatever that was? A quick perusal of the labels wasn't exactly enlightening, the top layer consisting of: _Edible Plants Common to Ba Sing Se,_ _The History of the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe, Basic Embroidery Stitches, Basic Embroidery Patterns, Repairing and Making Clothing, Quick and Easy Recipes for the Inexperienced Cook, Somewhat Less Quick and Easy Recipes for the More Experienced Cook, The Identification and Preparation of Common Foodstuffs, The Identification and Preparation of Uncommon Foodstuffs, Sweets and Cakes and Festival Foods, Clothing and Textiles of the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe, Preserving Food, _and the truly delightful sounding _Edible Vermin of Ba Sing Se_.

Whether or not they gave any insight into Xia didn't matter really, it wasn't like he ever expected to see her again. What did matter was that some of those scrolls did sound as if they'd be useful, especially the ones about food –though maybe not the one about eating vermin. He picked up _Quick and Easy Recipes for the Inexperienced Cook_ and _The Identification and Preparation of Common Foodstuffs_ before placing the box in the chest with the rest of his stuff.

Gathering up the clothes he'd picked out, the soap, the provisions, and the scrolls he returned to the main room, heading for the fire to check on the water. It had started to steam and small bubbles were forming on the bottom of the pot, so it wouldn't be all that much longer before it was hot enough.

Toph was sitting on one of the floor cushions, her back against the wall with the big window. She was chewing something from the package of rations she had open on her lap; a blank expression on her face. His stomach gave its own murmur of complaint at the sight so, after putting the clothes and soap aside, he opened his own rations and grabbed a bit of the now completely stale leftover rice-cake. He stared into the fireplace as he chewed, watching the water heat in its big stone pot. Some stew would be nice, or soup, or noodles... _Xia hadn't packed them anything to eat with_.

No cups, no plates, no bowls, no spoons, no chopsticks- nothing. Not even a knife to cut things with.

_Maybe the previous tenant had left some. _He rushed across the room to the cupboard, pulling its doors open and peering into its depths. There was a fairly new shopping basket in the bottom of the cupboard with a coil of thin rope lying in it, both probably forgotten by the previous tenant, but aside from that the cupboard was empty. Completely empty. Well, crap. Another expense.

With a weary sigh he walked back over to the fireplace and sat down where he could keep an eye on the water, picking up _The Identification and Preparation of Common Foodstuffs_ and beginning to read.

---


	14. Part 2, Chapter 6

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 6.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: So sorry it's been so long. First we moved and then I got sick, so I haven't really been able to write.  
SPECIAL NOTE: I know a lot of you are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Zuko and Iroh, so I feel I should warn you that it's going to be a while. You see, the way Zuko and Sokka run into each other is sort of important to how the fic will go, and I need to do some set-up work first. If you really can't wait then, as much as I hate writing this, it's probably best to stop reading now.

---

The voluminous black trousers he was wearing rustled slightly with his every step. He was blushing, he knew he was blushing, even though there was no real reason for him to blush. They _were_ trousers, he knew they were trousers, even if they looked like nothing more than a skirt. The fact that there was no way to mistake this outfit for a man's was no reason to blush. It wasn't. That wasn't going to stop him blushing though, was it.

It could always be worse, he supposed. Everything could always be worse.

It was nice being clean, or at least he thought it was nice –Toph didn't seem to care either way- but being clean didn't quite make up for what he was wearing. Though maybe that was just his own sensitivity speaking. _Toph_ wasn't having any trouble with what she was wearing, she was just getting down to business, not hanging around whining and worrying that she looked like a fool.

A quick perusal of _Clothing and Textiles of the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe_ had informed him that the people of the tribe expressed the health and prosperity of their particular family group through the quality and _especially_ the **quantity** of the fabric they wore, the fine embroidery, and the fact that their clothes had been designed to be worn while riding the long-haired camel-horses that the wealthy of their tribe bred. The first outfit Xia had put him in was one for travelling long distances by foot, and not the sort of thing that was apparently worn when settled in one place for long.

Though he'd bet good money (if he had any) that he was the only person in the city to know that, so what did it matter? Why couldn't Xia have packed clothes he would have been more comfortable in? It's not like anyone would have _known_ that they were wrong. With a nervous twitch he smoothed the cloth of the embroidered, short, sleeveless jacket that was tucked into the high, embroidered waistband of the trousers, adjusting the way it hung over his clean, black collar-and-cuffed shirt.

Oh well, he had other things to worry about. Mainly money.

After investigating prices at some other shops he'd been directed to a cheap printer in the red-light district to make the posters; a wizened old man who'd been surprised that they wanted something printed other than a brothel advertisement or pornography. He'd decided to get them done professionally because it would be quicker and the sooner they found the others the better. Also getting it done by _that_ printer and choosing a design without a picture of the others wasn't all that much more expensive than doing them himself. Of course if he did them himself they could afford to have a picture, but then again he wasn't entirely sure any picture he drew would be all that helpful in identifying their missing companions.

The posters would take a while to print, so he'd decided to go shopping for food and the other things they needed while they waited. He'd started with a brush and some glue to put up the posters, and then some cheap cloth that they could use for towels and other things, the memory of realising they had nothing to dry themselves with _after_ he'd gotten in the bath fresh on his mind. After that he'd found a potter's shop that sold boxes of assorted beginner-student's work and pieces that had gone wrong, for next to nothing. He'd picked out a box with at least two of everything they needed, so they now had crockery –even if it was all a bit strange; malformed and hideously glazed. He'd handed over another couple of bronze coins for a small, sharp knife of reasonable quality as he'd need one to cook properly. Early on he'd come to the conclusion that they could compromise on the amount they spent on food in a way that they couldn't on some of the other things they needed.

Compromise it would have to be too; food was expensive in Ba Sing Se. No, that was a lie; _meat_ was expensive in Ba Sing Se. It made sense though, from what he'd seen as the train had taken them across the agrarian zone there was a lot of arable land and little pasture within the outer wall of the city, and from what he'd heard of Lake Laogai it had been all but fished out. A quick question asked to one of the shop keepers had also informed him that there'd been a grain blight before the last harvest which had impacted on both the price of (the usually cheap) poultry and the price of wheat and wheat flour.

So meat was expensive, especially meat that listed the animal it came from instead of just 'meat'. Offal was nearly affordable –though not always particularly appetising, poultry would be if they had just a little more money, and fresh fish was totally out of the question. So it would have to be cheap, imported dried meat and fish, bean curd, or eggs for protein until they had some more money. He'd already bought some rice, some millet, some vegetables that probably wouldn't last long without some method of refrigeration –this was one of those times when he could really use a waterbender.

A deep sigh of irritation from Toph brought him back to the here and now "Are you going to stand there all day?"

He let his eyes refocus on the various barrels full of dried dead things before giving the shopkeeper an uncomfortable smile. The woman (who had been staring at him since he'd approached the market stall) smiled a disconcertingly toothy smile back "New to the city aren't ya?" He nodded but didn't reply, not sure he wanted to get stuck in a conversation with the woman. "Thought so," she said with a self-satisfied smile "Not used to the prices yet are ya? Poor thing. Ya know what yer after?"

He shook his head "Meat?"

She nodded, thoughtful "Anything ya don't like?"

"Not really," he replied, eyeing the dried meats.

"How's about I pick for ya then, get ya a bit of what I think's good?" she said, same creepy smile on her face "How much ya got ta spend?"

Not much, but he didn't want to say that; he'd counted the coins again and again, their quantity burned into his brain. "The equivalent to five full bronze pieces."

"That's not much pet" she tsked, taking bits of meat from various barrels and wrapping it in paper before holding out her hand for the meagre collection of coins "this won't be lasting ya fer long." He paid her and took the small package, laying it on top of everything else in the shopping basket he'd found in the cupboard earlier.

"Thanks," he murmured as he walked off, Toph falling into step beside him. They had three, maybe four day's worth of food and possibly enough money left for a cup of tea, provided it wasn't a fancy one. If they didn't find the others in the next few days he'd have to get a job just so they wouldn't starve. This wasn't good.

"The posters should be ready by now," he said, more to break himself out of his thoughts than anything else.

"Then let's go get them," Toph replied, sarcastic, still in the dark mood she'd been in since she'd gone to fetch the water. He nodded, already turning back the way they'd come.

Their apartment complex was located in a poorly defined part of the Lower Ring –residential buildings interspersed with restaurants, shops and bars- sandwiched between the red-light district and one of Ba Sing Se's many markets. As they passed from the marketplace through their residential zone and into the red-light district it was disconcerting how much things changed.

The red-light district was different to the rest of the Lower Ring, or at least the parts of the Lower Ring he'd seen. It was almost violently colourful for one, with the men, women and everything in-between that worked and lived there dressed in every colour of the rainbow, often all at once, and wearing (or not wearing, as the case may be) the sort of clothes that would make Katara kill him for even glancing at them. The people were different too; often louder, brasher, rowdier -going about their lives, conducting their _business,_ out there for everyone to see. The people that obviously didn't work there, or live there, were just as over the top.

He suspected that if he ran into the ones that were obviously residents of the Lower Ring anywhere else in the city they'd have that haunted strain around there eyes and mouths, that quietness, that _anger_ that hung around the poorest of the city's populace like a haze, but here they laughed and drank and flung themselves headfirst into abandon -but that wasn't too bad. The people from the Middle and Upper Rings, they were _bad_. Even though he'd only very briefly visited this part of the city it was already obvious that the richer citizens saw it as their own personal playground, the residents as their own personal toys. As it was he did his best to keep his eyes to himself and hoped that Toph couldn't 'see' well enough to witness some of what was going on around them.

He dodged a wildly laughing man who then tripped over his own feet and collapsed drunkenly on the ground, a prostitute with a garishly painted face pinched into an expression of long-suffering attempting to pull him to his feet. _It was only early afternoon;_ _shouldn't all these people be working? Or at home? Or doing something other than carousing in the daylight where anyone could see them?_ The printer's shop was just up ahead so he sped up, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible.

They were both hungry, or at least _he_ was and he suspected Toph was too, though she hadn't said anything -neither of them had eaten since their meagre breakfast. He planned on going back to the apartment and preparing something for their dinner before putting up the posters, leaving it to cook in a covered pot in the hot coals of the fire while they were gone. There were a few recipes in the scrolls Xia had given them for stew made with dried meat that could be cooked that way, he didn't know how it would turn out as he wasn't exactly a practiced cook, but he could only try. He'd have to get used to cooking, and soon.

The printer's unassuming shop was a thin, drab building sandwiched between a bar and some kind of highly suspicious shop with blacked out windows and no sign. It was also a sight for sore eyes at that moment. Entering the shop he dodged a smug, fat little man who stank of too much stale cologne and whose fine clothes marked him as a resident of either the Middle or Upper Ring. The man glared at him coldly and twitched his clothes away from Toph as she walked through the door. "Tomorrow and no later!" the fat man declared before turning and leaving the shop.

"Yeah, yeah," the little old printer muttered, gathering a stack of paper from the counter "you'll have your filth on time." The old man put the papers aside before gathering another stack and placing it on the counter "Your posters are ready Miss. I wish you luck."

---

The green light of the room was not kind to the man studying the piece of paper handed to him by his subordinate. "Hmm-" he murmured, before pinning the man who had given him the paper with his gaze "and you say that these were put up by a blind boy and a dark-skinned girl? Members of the Roaming Butterflybat Tribe?"

The subordinate nodded, his eyes on the floor, "Yes."

"And this was how they entered the city? With valid documentation?"

"Yes Sir."

"_Clever_," the man purred "but not clever enough. The posters have been destroyed?"

The other man nodded, "Yes, all of them but that one. Do you wish for them to be detained?"

The man placed the poster in a small wooden box "No, I feel that the bison will be adequate leverage for now." Without looking at his subordinate the man removed another piece of paper from the box and studied it a moment before beginning to speak "Watch them, be ready to take them on my order, and don't, and I mean _don't_ allow them to reunite with the Avatar."

---


	15. Part 2, Chapter 7

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 7.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing. References to child abuse. Horrible people.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: Well it's been a while, and Uni is starting up again next week so it may be a while again, but I want to reassure you that don't intend to abandon this story- though I may not always get around to replying to your reviews, sorry in advance.

---

The posters were gone. All of them. All that hard work, all that money. Just- gone.

A few of them, sure, that would make sense. Some might have come unstuck, or been removed by someone who objected to their presence, but all of them? He didn't know what to make of it, couldn't think of a reason, especially as everyone he'd asked claimed to have seen nothing. He didn't know what to do.

They had no money for new posters, no money for more food, their searching for the others as they put up the posters the day before had gotten them nowhere- Okay, so he was going to have to get a job. "This one's gone too?" Toph asked, though it wasn't really a question, dragging him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah," he sighed, turning away from the blank stretch of wall.

There was a pause before Toph spoke again "So- what? The poster-elves just came and magicked them away?"

"I have no idea," he sighed "and we don't have the money to get some more printed."

She was frowning when he turned to look at her "So what are we going to do now?"

He took a minute to consider his plan "Do you think you could search on your own?"

She snorted "Yeah. Why? You trying to get rid of me?"

He gave her a flat look, "No, I'm just- I'll have to get a job and I'd feel better if one of us was out looking while I'm working, and you can see further with your earthbending that I can with my eyes."

"Oh," she mumbled "Where?"

"I don't know," he replied "I'll look for one later. We might as well go home and have lunch now." He'd put some more stew on to cook before they'd left that morning, this time using some of the dried fish that Xia had given them. The stew he'd cooked the day before had turned out –not great, but alright. They didn't have any salt or soysauce or vinegar or sugar or garlic or ginger or chilli or herbs to make it anything other than the most basic of basic stews, and he'd used the last of the dried meat they'd stolen from the soldiers to make it –which had been tough and tasteless to start with. He'd actually been rather pleased at how it had turned out, all things considered; they hadn't even thrown up after eating it. The rice porridge he'd gotten up early to make for breakfast had turned out better than he'd expected as well- in that it was actually quite tasty- so he hoped their lunch stew wouldn't be too bad.

He spent their walk back to the apartment with his eyes open for the others, a voice in the back of his mind telling him that it was hopeless. He tried to ignore that voice, especially when it suggested that they'd never find them, that Aang and- _that the others_ would get the Earth King's cooperation and go on to defeat the Fire Nation without them ever reuniting. It was a bad voice.

The walk back through the streets and districts of the Lower Ring was uneventful, if long and boring. They'd wasted hours, _hours_, just retracing their steps from the day before, searching for the posters that they'd gone to so much trouble to put up. It was disheartening.

It was lunch time so people were out in droves, eating at the many restaurants, cafés, and roadside stalls that they passed. _The Spring Sparrowkeet_ was full, like usual, but this time as he passed it he noticed a young, bored looking man sticking a badly written sign that said 'halp wanterd' in the front window.

He stopped, stared, looking up at the restaurant right next to their current base of operations. It was old, obviously often and inexpertly repaired over the years but there was signs of recent prosperity- and not just because it was always busy. The faded, once elegant sign read '_The Spring Sparrowkeet Noodle-_' possibly house, hut, shop, restaurant, palace or _something_, because whatever it had said was lost beneath the piece of rough wood that had been nailed over it with _'–and-as-of-last-week-Dumpling-and-Steamed-Bun- Shop_' written sloppily on it in red paint.

"Wait here," he told Toph, heading for the restaurant.

"What?" she snapped "_Xue Lien_? What are you doing?"

"I'll be back in a moment," he called back as he entered the busy restaurant, dodging customers and waitresses as he went. A brief glance about the table-filled room helped him to locate the large woman standing near the back wall overseeing the place like a general directing her army. _Mei-Chu_ he presumed. He walked over to her, apprehensive and _kicking_ himself for getting them into this mess. "Um-" he mumbled at her, not sure what exactly to say "about that sign in your window?"

The woman examined him in silence for a moment, her eyes roaming from the top of his bonnet all the way down to the soles of his shoes. "Not exactly what I had in mind," she said, "but maybe even better."

"I'm sorry-?"

She nodded once, decisively, before speaking "We're looking for a delivery person- well, we _were_ looking for a delivery boy, but I think you'd be better. More memorable at least, especially if we work up some sort of uniform-" she trailed off, thinking about something, before nodding again "Business is going so well recently that it's worth a try, though there is no guarantee that it will be a permanent position. We don't have an Ostrichhorse or wagon, you understand, but we have a small cart set aside, and we're only going to be taking orders from places close enough that the food will get there before it gets cool."

Mei-Chu looked at him, obviously expecting some sort of response. His first instinct was to decline, his desire to work there being at least partly based off the idea that they could leave a sign on the door to their apartment when they managed to get some new posters printed that would direct anyone who came by to go to the restaurant and find him, but then it occurred to him that he probably wasn't going to have another opportunity to get a job that would let him search at the same time as he worked. Even if he would only be searching near the restaurant, it was better than doing nothing. "Um- that sounds good. What does it pay? What hours would I work?"

The woman thought about it for a moment before answering "We close the restaurant for the third day of the week, when it is least busy, but on the other days we'd want you to work from midday to an hour after full dark, which is at current eight hours. As for pay-" Mei Chu gave him a frank look "Well, you _are_ a woman, and it is an experiment for now, so I'm sure you'll find two Silver a day to be perfectly reasonable. With a day's pay taken off the first week for your uniform."

It took a moment for him to get over the way she'd said 'Well, you _are_ a woman' and the implication behind it that that meant she wouldn't have to pay him as much, before he could do some quick calculations. Two silver a day would give him two Gold and two Silver at the end of most weeks, two Gold at the end of the first. If he put aside the cost of rent (which he wouldn't do in the first week, but should probably do from the second just in case they were trapped in the city for longer) they would have one Gold a week to live off. Not much, not much at all in Ba Sing Se, but not too bad. Survivable at least. He could only imagine what it would be like if they had to pay full rent, since what he would be getting paid wouldn't even cover it.

"Okay, that's- okay," he said "Do you want me to start today, or- ?"

The woman frowned and then shook her head "No. Tomorrow. We'll have to let people know-" she broke off, frowning for a second before clapping her hands together "_actually_ I have an advertising permit, so I'll get some flyers printed and a uniform sorted out and you can return in a couple of hours and help put them up for me. Only in the surrounding neighbourhood of course. I'll even take half a day's pay off the cost of your uniform. How does that sound?"

Horrible, tedious, depressingly reminiscent of what he'd spent the last day doing to no avail, but money was money and _money_ was something they needed desperately. "Good, that sounds- yeah," he answered.

"Good, see you later," she replied, her eyes on something that was happening behind him "No! _Don't_ do that Ling-Mai!" she snapped, marching over to one of the waitresses, who was apologising profusely to a customer that she'd spilled food all over. Shrugging, he turned around and left, the sound of her furiously berating the girl ringing in his ears.

Toph was where he'd left her, except now she was glaring. "What was that about?"

"I got a job, " he replied, wondering if he'd done the right thing.

"What?" she frowned "There? _Why_?"

"They wanted a delivery girl," he answered "and this way I can sort of search and work at the same time- _and_ it's a popular restaurant so there's always a chance they might come in on their own." It sounded reasonable, _didn't it?_

Toph seemed to accept it because she nodded "Okay then. How much does it pay?"

He shrugged "Not much, but enough that we won't starve."

"Mm-" she murmured, noncommittally. They fell into an awkward silence after that, just standing there in the middle of the street. Eventually he couldn't take it anymore so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind "So-lunch?" She nodded and turned to their apartment, walking off without waiting for him. He followed quickly after, dodging people on his way.

Stepping through the gate after her he noticed a woman that he hadn't seen before lounging on a chair in the courtyard, vaguely watching a couple of girls –both probably younger than him, though not by that many years- in dirty, torn clothes with matted hair as they knelt in the dirt and scrubbed away at a large mound of laundry in two wooden tubs. The woman was wearing a short jacket, undone halfway and letting the world get a good hard look at her not inconsiderable charms, and nothing else- not even shoes. Her hair was up in a half-hearted bun, her legs were dirty to the knee, and when she spotted him looking at her she spat a great glob of phlegm in his direction. "What're you looking at bitch?"

One of the girls, the older one he'd guess, looked up from the washing, revealing a face that he thought at first was dirty, before he realised they were bruises. "Mama don't, _please_."

"Shut up brat!" the woman snapped, giving her daughter a look of near paralysing contempt "Your grandma told me I should have drowned you when you were born; stop proving her right."

The girl flinched, but went back to her washing without trying to defend herself.

"How nice," a new voice cut through the air; icy, cold, but somehow _angry_ "I see that you're not dead in a ditch somewhere Cho; such a pity fate is not smiling on us." The woman who had spoken was young, pretty in a cold way, and neatly dressed- not a hair out of place- in clean, carefully maintained clothes. He had seen her before, but only briefly- she was Ae, the woman who lived in number eight.

"Oh look, the bitch queen has come to defend the new little bitch and my bitch of a daughter," Cho growled, even as her body language was attempting to prove exactly how much she didn't care what the other woman was saying.

"You might want to work on your vocabulary," Ae replied, breezing past the other woman and heading towards the gate. He took that opportunity to escape before Cho turned her attention back to him. _What the hell was wrong with so many of the people he'd met recently?_

---


	16. Part 2, Chapter 8

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 8.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing. References to child abuse.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Author's Notes: So sorry it's been so long. Between Uni, general life unpleasantness and bouts of sickness I sort of didn't have the energy for writing, or even for fandom in general. I'm not sure when I'll get any more written, but I hope you enjoy this part.

Why hadn't she known that Sokka could cook? Forget that, _why hadn't Sokka been cooking until now?_ It had been an almost non-stop parade of nuts, fruit and raw vegetables ever since she'd joined Aang and his companions, and when it wasn't- Katara wasn't a bad cook, really, she was just- it was all bland. No matter what she cooked it turned out bland. Of course Aang was a vegetarian, but even then the cook at her parent's house had cooked dishes without meat sometimes and they'd been fairly tasty. Everything Sokka had cooked so far had been better than anything she'd eaten since she left home that wasn't bought at a stall or a shop.

She hadn't realised that she'd missed good food too.

After a breakfast of fried vegetables on rice -that Sokka had cooked to deal with the leftover wilting greens they had- they'd spent the morning on their search, increasingly futile as it felt. After that it had been back to the apartment for an early lunch –one of Sokka's slow-cooked stews made with dried meat- and then he'd gone off to work leaving her to search on her own until he came home for a late dinner and a little bit more searching.

Of course she was getting nowhere. Of course. She'd been almost sure that she'd felt Katara earlier, but a man had bumped into her and by the time he'd finished apologizing and fussing over her (no matter that she told him it was fine, no matter how hard she tried to get rid of him) the sense was gone. He wasn't going to tell Sokka about it, it would just upset him. It had upset her, to be honest.

She hated it here. She hated Ba Sing Se. Sometimes she wanted to just grab Sokka and beg and plead for them to leave the city, to go somewhere else, anywhere else- they could catch up to the others later. The women who lived in their apartment complex were part of it, the way they lurked and gossiped and spread lies about her, about Sokka. The other part of it was the thing she'd just begun to notice, the _men_.

Not directed at her, which she thanked the earth and the heavens for, but she could feel the interest some of them had in Sokka. That twinge of something that made her sick and scared in a way that it never would have before. She was frightened for him in this city. Frightened. Chen's warning that _the world was a dangerous place for a girl _preying on her mind.

She still wanted to go home, well, not really, what she wanted to do was run away and hide in a cave somewhere, and take him with her. That way they might be safe.

"Hey sir!"

She figured that she had a couple of hours left before the sun set, before she should be getting back. She'd probably be able to sense it happening on her own, as the feel of the sun would start to fade and there were several types of flowers (weeds really) that closed when the sun went down, which grew wild between the cracks of the paving stones and in any patch of dirt that they could find. Anyway, she could always ask someone. Pull the poor, blind child card. Though if she did that she'd probably want to ask a woman.

"Hey, sir! You sir!"

The Lower Ring was so large, so hard to search. So far they'd been searching methodically, starting where they'd left off the day before and walking each street in turn, asking people here and there, but she was starting to think that a more random approach might help. Maybe if they searched methodically in the morning, before Sokka went to work, she could wander about randomly and see what happened in the afternoon.

"You want to win some money sir? No? How about you ma'am?"

There was also the matter of the Middle Ring, which they hadn't had a chance to even visit let alone search yet, or trying to find a way into the Upper Ring. Sokka seemed to have just waved it off as impossible, but she wasn't so sure. If they were careful, thoughtful, maybe they could find their way in and thus increase their chance of finding the others.

"How about you young sir? Spend a full Bronze piece and win Silver! Spend a full Silver piece and win _Gold_!"

_That_ caught her attention. The man was running one of those stalls by the side of the road where you guessed what cup a pebble was under, and of course he was cheating, they always cheated. It would be a good way to make money, especially as she could cheat right back -only she didn't have the money to get started. Not even a single Bronze piece. Not even a Half-Bronze piece. That wouldn't always be the case though. Not once Sokka got paid, and with a Silver here and there they could probably earn enough to ensure that he didn't have to work, that they could both search for the others so they could escape this wretched place as soon as possible. Of course that would only work if she didn't get caught, but most other earthbenders weren't as talented as her, their control not as fine.

Someone brushed past her, their hands quickly darting into her pockets. She earthbended reflexively, trapping them in stone. "_He y_!" the girl, and she realised it was a girl- a couple of years younger than her and short, too skinny, whined "I didn't even take anything."

She sighed, annoyed "No, of course not. I don't have anything for you to steal."

"Well, so it's- I mean sorry. I guess. Could you let me go now?" the girl wheedled, squirming in her prison of stone.

Rolling her eyes she released her. She hadn't taken anything (though not for a lack of trying) and she just couldn't see the point of dragging her in front of the law. Especially considering what she'd been thinking about before the girl had tried to pick her pocket.

The girl brushed herself off before bouncing over to her "So, right, you're blind aren't you?"

"Yeah," that was stating the obvious.

"That _rocks_!," the girl squawked "How did you do that? With the earthbending? If you can't even _see_?"

She began to walk, hoping the girl would go away. When all she did was follow she replied with "I '_see'_ using _earthbending_."

"Oh wow," the girl breathed "Could you teach my brother? I mean he can earthbend, he's just kinda bad at it."

"Chun-Hua come here!" a boy's voice interrupted before she could tell the girl 'no'. "Get away from him!"

"Did you see what he did Gan?" the girl squawked in delight as the boy came up and grabbed her, dragging her behind him "Wasn't it amazing!"

Gan ignored the girl, instead hissing "What are you doing with my sister?"

She sighed, irritated "Attempting to escape her."

"Did you see it? Did you see it?" the girl continued to squawk "He could teach you earthbending!"

"What did I tell you about talking to strange men Chun-Hua?" Gan snapped at his sister.

She made a small sound of exasperation before replying "He's not a man, he's a _boy_. An earthbender! He caught me without even looking when I tried to pick his pocket, because he's _blind_!"

There was a pause before the boy stepped towards her, probably studying her eyes. "Wow. He is."

"_He_ is right here," she replied "and he would like to go now. He also didn't do anything to your sister and isn't going to teach you earthbending."

"I didn't ask you to teach me earthbending" Gan said, sounding slightly less hostile that he had at the start. Probably because he now knew she was blind. _Because he was an idiot_. Though an idiot that could see, so she might as well make things easy for herself.

"Is the sun setting yet?"

There was a pause before he answered "Not yet, I think there's about an hour to go. Why?"

It would probably be rude to just ignore him and walk off, and she suspected he was the type of boy who wouldn't take kindly to her being rude so she answered him "Need to know when I have to go home. So bye."

She turned to go and managed a few steps before Chun-Hua was running towards her "Oh, no, come on. _Please_- If he gets better at earthbending then he can get into the _academy_, we can have a _future_."

"I said no," she replied, still walking.

"Why?" whined the girl.

"I don't have the time," she answered "and I don't know either of you."

The girl obviously wasn't just going to accept it because she asked "Why don't you have the time?"

Since the girl obviously wasn't going to stop following her and she didn't fancy being dogged for the rest of the day she stopped and turned around "There're people I have to find."

"Why?" Chun-Hua squeaked "Did they steal your money? Is that why you don't have any?"

She shook her head "No. I'm looking for the Avatar."

"Oh wow!" the girl gasped "The _Avatar_! Oh, oh, I'd love to meet the Avatar."

"Why are you looking for him?" Gan, who had followed his sister, asked.

She debated whether to answer honestly, or even answer at all, before deciding it was better to be safe than sorry. Someone had removed their posters while making sure no one saw them do it, which she thought was a good enough reason to be cautious. "None of your business."

The boy flinched and opened his mouth to say something, his whole body vibrating with anger, but before he could speak Chun-Hua interrupted him. "Sorry. I mean, _I _know it's rude to just ask people stuff when you've just met them, even if my brother doesn't, but could you forgive him anyway? Please? It'd be really good if you _could_ and maybe find some time to teach him."

That was ridiculous. As far as she'd experienced so far _nothing_ would stop that girl from asking questions, least of all propriety. "I said no, anyway, don't you two have somewhere else to be?"

She felt the girl shake her head "We're not allowed to go home yet because the government bastard is there, and ever since he beat Gan half to death that time when Gan tried to stop the asshole from cutting Mama she doesn't want us anywhere near when he's there, in case we get hurt."

Chun-Hua's words cut through her. The casual tone in which they were spoken, what she'd said- she'd been paying them the barest amount of awareness before but now she focussed her attention on Gan, on his bones, and almost flinched. Healed fractures. His ribs, his arms, his face. Especially his face. She couldn't see him, didn't really know what people _looked_ like, but she suspected he didn't look quite right because of the damage.

No wonder he hadn't wanted his sister talking to some boy she'd only just met.

It wasn't any of her business. It wasn't her problem. It _wasn't_. "Okay, I can probably spare an hour to teach you every day, but in return you've gotta help me search for the Avatar."


	17. Part 2, Chapter 9

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 9.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing. Bad language. Violence.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.

ooo

His hands felt dry and sore and he was already tired, so tired. The morning had been spent doing the laundry. Well, cooking, refilling his fake breasts and doing the laundry- but the laundry was the thing that had tired him out. They didn't have a washboard, they didn't have a wooden dolly, and they especially didn't have the river rock and flowing water of the method of washing things he was used to. So he'd had to scrub everything by hand- cloth against cloth- before rinsing it all and hanging it up on the clothes line he'd rigged up in their apartment from the thin rope he'd found in the cupboard and two hooks that he'd had Toph earthbend out of the walls at either end of the main room. He could have hung their clothes outside to dry like everyone else in the complex seemed to, but between the silk and the embroidery he didn't trust the other tenants not to steal them, so he just had to hope that the constant heat of the never banked fire would help them dry fast.

It was tiring, backbreaking, skin chafing work. Work that had taken longer than he'd expected; lunch, what little lunch he could spare from their dwindling supply of food, had been rushed, and he'd barely gotten dinner in the cooking fire before he'd had to grab his passport and go, his ridiculous uniform only half on as he struggled out the door. The mess of bright, clashing green cut in a way that seemed to mock more than mimic the style of clothes he was becoming used to as a pretend member of the _Roaming Butterflybat Tribe_ clashed rather badly with the ratty old bonnet and woven reed sandals that were part of the 'messy work' outfit that Xia had packed for him, which he hadn't had time to change out of.

He was sure Mei-Chu didn't approve, but then she had forced him to wear something with the words '_The Spring Sparrowkeet Noodle House_' embroidered across both the front and back in huge, acid-yellow letters, so he wasn't all that sympathetic.

Work had proved- _difficult. _The first day hadn't started well, first he'd been forced to rush back to get his passport, which Mei-Chu had forgotten to check the day before in her distraction with Ling-Mai, and then he'd been sent out to put up her posters- which had been easy enough with the practice he'd had lately. People had kept stopping him to ask what the posters were for, and it had seemed to him as if their eyes would get stuck on his stupid outfit in a way he'd found sort of disquieting. Not that he was sure what it was about the way they'd looked at him that had made him uncomfortable; maybe it was just because he looked like an idiot, but it had been somehow_ different _to the odd gazes he was used to, first as a Water Tribe member and then a member of the _Roaming Butterflybat Tribe_ .

He'd only made a couple of deliveries so far, as _The Spring Sparrowkeet_'s delivery service was new and there hadn't been many orders, but they'd been easy enough, the main problem was that because there were so few orders he'd ended up being used as a sort of general purpose servant the rest of the time. Handing out flyers for the restaurant the day before and being ordered to help unload a cart of vegetables moment he'd arrived this day, supposedly with the assistance of Xun, Mei-Chu's son. The guy he'd seen putting up the _help wanterd_ sign. Not that Xun was doing any work.

"You don't have a boyfriend do you?" the other male purred "No, a pretty girl like you- he'd be a fool to let you out of the house." _Was he supposed to find that flattering?_ Ignoring Xun, he focussed on grabbing the crates from the cart in the alley and walking them through the restaurant's courtyard to hand them to the large guy a couple of years older than him that worked in the kitchen with Mei-Chu's husband.

Xun pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against and started to follow him, still talking. "Is it true that when a girl from your tribe gets married she agrees to _obey_ her husband? Do _everything_ he asks her to?" Okay, that was beyond irritating and well into creepy territory. _What could he say though? Xun was his bosses son_. If only they didn't need the money.

"Hey Fuckface, leave the lady alone!" the guy who worked in the kitchen snapped, walking out into the courtyard and spitting at the ground in front of Xun's feet "Go bother Jun if you want to get your dick wet."

Xun danced backwards, staring at the glob of spit with disgust before glaring up at the other guy "Do you think my mother would like you talking to me like that?"

The other guy snorted "Do you think I care? Anyway she may dock my pay, but do you really think she's going to sack me? We both know that if I go so do the dumplings and steamed buns, and with them her plans for the future of her restaurant."

Xun smirked "We can always get another chef."

"Yeah, you could," the other guy replied "but you won't find one as good as me, not for the slave-wage your mother pays."

Xun couldn't seem to find a reply to that, because he whirled around and stalked off, muttering under his breath. The other guy watched him go before tsking and spitting on the ground again. "Useless, lazy, bastard. Here, let me take that," he handed over the crate of cabbages, keeping an eye on the guy. He felt nervous, though he wasn't sure why.

The guy seemed to read it in his face, or maybe his body language, because he shook his head "Hey, no, Lady no. Don't look at me like that, I'm not into girls." That was almost enough to make him laugh, almost.

"So that means you-?"

The guy shrugged, readjusting his grip on the crate "I'm not seeing anyone currently, but if I was they'd be a boy."

"Ah-" he murmured, the concept difficult to process. It hadn't really occurred to him before that that could happen. That two guys could-

"We should probably get back to unloading the cart," the guy said, turning back to the kitchen to deliver the cabbages. He murmured an agreement and headed back to the cart, grabbing the next crate. They worked in silence for a while, until the cart was almost completely unloaded, only the couple of crates right at the far end to go. They were too far away to reach, so he climbed up onto the cart and dragged them towards him. When they were close enough he jumped down and grabbed the first one, startling when he discovered the guy right next to him, grabbing the other one.

When they were almost to the kitchen door the guy spoke "Kang-Dae," at his blank look the guy rolled his eyes "My name."

"Ah- " he murmured, replying "Xue-Lien" as he deposited the crate in the kitchen.

Kang-Dae snorted a laugh as he put down his own burden "Yeah I know, I think everyone in the neighbourhood knows."

"What? _Why?_"

"You're new, exotic-" Kang-Dae snorted another laugh, shaking his head "but I think the main reason is that Jun has been baying for your blood and that girl is _loud._"

"Well that's-" he knew the heavily made-up, extravagantly pretty waitress didn't like him, but- "I don't know what that is. _Why_?"

The other male shrugged, stating "Xun."

He didn't seem to be the type to stick with one girl, but- "They're- ?" he was interrupted by Mei-Chu, shouting for the male in question.

"Xun!" there was a pause before she shouted again, her voice getting louder as she got closer "Xun!" Finally she stuck her head into the kitchen and pinned them with her gaze "Have you seen my son? It's time to deliver the doctor's lunch."

"Ah- no. He-" Kang-Dae mimed walking off with his fingers and then shrugged "sorry."

"What's gotten into him?" Mei-Chu sighed, throwing her hands into the air "Oh well, Xue-Lien you'll have to do it instead."

"Do what, exactly?" It sounded like a food delivery, which he would have thought would be his duty anyway.

Mei-Chu looked at him as though he was an idiot "Deliver the doctor's lunch! Come on, don't dither about or it'll get warm."

He soon found himself standing in the middle of the kitchen as his boss shoved a large, cloth-wrapped lunchbox into his hands. "Here, no- just wait a minute" Mei-Chu muttered to herself as she fluttered about searching for something, eventually she located a piece of paper and, after taking a piece of charcoal from the edge of the cooking fire, she scribbled something down and handed it to him. "Directions to the doctor's house. Forget the cart and hurry! Now!"

Glancing at the piece of paper he did as she'd ordered, darting through the restaurant and out to the street, the sound of her voice shouting "Get back to work you lazy, useless, self-indulgent lump!" echoing behind him.

He walked fast and kept his head down as he made his way through the red-light district and out into part of the Lower Ring that he hadn't visited since the first day they arrived in the city. This doctor's home was a fair way away, located past the train station by which they'd arrived in the city proper and in a part of the city they hadn't gotten around to searching yet. Far away from anything he would consider as his usual delivery area.

A little way past the station the people began to slow, the foot-traffic moving like chilled honey. He could hear a commotion up ahead, the sound of shouting. The people near him looked nervous, the skin around their eyes pinched tight. He was jostled, hard, and almost dropped the doctor's lunch as a small group of people pushed their way roughly through the crowd, breaking into a run the moment they hit clear space. "It'll be fine, it'll be fine," a middle-aged woman, so thin her arms were like twigs, mumbled to the old man holding tight to her arm.

"I know, I know," the man muttered back, though his eyes were rolling in their sockets "We're fine. We've got them with us. I just wish I knew _why_ it's started up again."

Slowly the crowd crept forward until he could see what was happening. It was a blockade, guards in green uniforms stopping random people who passed and checking their passports, a collection of raggedy men and women crouched on the ground next to them, their arms bound with rope. A thrill of fear went through him even though he had no reason to be afraid, he had his passport. He- this just seemed wrong, this was Ba Sing Se, this was the last stronghold of the Earth Kingdom, surely this was the sort of thing that should be happening in the Fire Nation instead.

Surprisingly the guards didn't chose him to stop so he made his way through the blockade easily, doing his best to seem as innocent as possible. He darted into a side alley once he was out of the visual range of the guards and took a moment to regain his composure, before starting off again.

From the blockade it took him over half an hour to reach the doctor's house, and when he had he found himself looking at a small, well-kept building that looked out of place surrounded by the large, dirty, dilapidated messes that made up most of the buildings of the Lower Ring. He made his way to the front door by the path that led through the neat garden filled with what looked like medicinal herbs, from the few specimens he could identify. The door wasn't locked and swung open easily, revealing a small, clean reception room. It was empty, but as he stepped inside he could faintly hear a woman's voice from somewhere deeper in the building. "Things are hard doctor, too hard. With the Dai Li-" she broke off, swallowing what she'd been about to say "independent farms like ours are struggling, people starving- I have no idea how we've managed to survive as it is, but if we want to continue then I have to be able to help."

"I know the new land redistribution initiatives are-" an educated man's voice answered her "well, it does one no good to speak ill of the Dai Li, but if you don't want to lose this child too you have to take it easy. Your husband is a good man, surely he'll understand."

The woman choked out a laugh "Of course he will; he'd take the shirt off his back to clothe me, would rather starve than see me go hungry for even one afternoon, will work his hands to the bone, break his back, to make things even the slightest bit easier for me, but it's my farm too. My _life_. We've already lost so much when we had next to nothing to start with, I'm not about to let the _**accursed**_ Dai Li grind us into the dirt!" anger coloured her voice, made it raw, ugly.

"Shush Hana, some words should not be spoken where there are ears to hear them," the man tried to soothe her "Now, do you need help getting home?"

The woman's bitter voice was louder as she replied, coming closer "Don't worry about it doctor, the rest of me may be falling apart but my feet still work."

"Alright, if you're sure."

"I am," the woman replied as both she and the doctor walked into the room where he was standing, stopping and staring at him, their eyes frightened even as they tried to remain composed. The doctor was old, at least in his sixties, thin and well groomed with a neatly trimmed beard, the woman was pretty in a nondescript way and hugely pregnant, her clothes old and repeatedly mended. They were still staring at him.

"You are?" the man eventually asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Mei-Chu sent me?" he replied, his confusion at their fear making it a question "I have your lunch."

Both of them relaxed, letting out small sighs of relief "Sorry, sorry. Didn't recognize you. I expected Xun, you see."

He shrugged, uncomfortably "Yeah, well he kinda- anyway. So, your lunch?"

The doctor nodded "Yes, yes. I'll have it in the back room, would you like some tea?"

After a moment's thought he nodded, the more time he could spend away from Xun, Jun and Mei-Chu the better. "I'll just-" the woman spoke quietly, gesturing to the door "Do I owe you anything?"

The doctor shook his head "No," before smiling at the woman "be careful getting home Hana." The other male watched her as she left, a sadness in his eyes. "Poor woman," the doctor sighed, "Anyway, time for tea; follow me. So how long have you been working for-?" he broke off as chaos broke out.

There were screams from outside, shrieks, the floor shaking, everything shaking, and something rumbling, banging, until suddenly there was silence. Wretched silence. And then the screaming started again, mixed in with wailing, crying.

Both he and the doctor turned to the door as Hana burst back into the room "It's one of the rattraps doctor! It's-" she panted, lurching into the room and out of the way as a man tried to push past her a- he couldn't even tell if it was a boy or a girl, there was too much blood, too much raw tissue- _child_ in his arms.

"Help me! Help me!" the man wailed "Please, please save her! Please!"

The doctor ran to the man's side and took the girl from his arms, laying her carefully on the floor. He knelt by her side, examined her and started to shake his head, looking up at the man with sad eyes "I'm sorry- I'm sorry."

The man let out an unearthly wail, collapsing next to the girl and pulling her back into his arms as he wept, rocking back and forth. Shaking. The doctor got to his feet, looking down at the man with sympathy, as another man stuck his head in the door and shouted "Doctor! Hurry! There's been an apartment collapse!"

"I'm coming!" the doctor shouted back, heading towards the door to his office. He disappeared inside for a minute before emerging carrying a leather bag in one hand and a large cloth bag in the other. The man walked over towards him, frowning "I'll need help out there and you've kept your head so far- Will you assist me?" He nodded, taking the cloth bag when the doctor handed it over. _He couldn't just walk away from this. He __**couldn't**__._

"What about me doctor? I want to-" Hana called out, only to have the doctor interrupt her.

"No Hana!" he snapped, making her flinch. After a moment the stern look melted out of his face and he shrugged "There'll be children who aren't hurt too bad, children with missing parents or parents that are still searching, if I send them to you are you well enough to take care of them?"

"Yes, of course."

He nodded. "Okay then, follow me girl," the doctor said as they both walked out into the blood-stained streets.

ooo


	18. Part 2, Chapter 10

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 10.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing. References to child abuse.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.

Notes: I know it's been a while, too long really, but this last semester at Uni was pretty full on and between that and everything else I never seemed to be able to find time to write. Sorry :)

000

She wasn't sure why she hadn't told Sokka about Gan and Chun-Hua yet, maybe it was just because she hadn't had the time, well, _he_ hadn't had the time, maybe she didn't want to bother him, or get his hopes up- maybe it was _her_ hopes she didn't want to get up. It was only the second day she'd been teaching the boy, and to be honest she'd sort of expected him to have given up by now. An hour's tuition a day didn't quite seem worth spending the whole afternoon searching for someone you didn't know. Even if it was the _Avatar_.

He was a surprisingly attentive student, which unfortunately did nothing at all to improve his earthbending; but it was nice to be listened to, heeded without any of that wheedling and attempting to find another way to do what she was trying to teach. Of course there were a few problems with trying to teach him, serious problems, but he was actually kind of pleasant once you got past the aggressive posturing and need to protect his sister, quiet too, which was more than could be said for Chun-Hua. "Ooooh wow! Did you see that Gan? Did you?" the girl in question chirped "Oh! Oh! If you can earthbend like that then you'll have no trouble getting into the academy!"

Gan sighed "I'm trying to concentrate Chun-Hua."

"Sorry, sorry" the girl said sheepishly "I'll be quiet." Only of course she wouldn't be, she hadn't managed it for five minutes in a row during the entire time they'd spent together. From the moment they met up, discussed how they'd search and where they'd meet later, until the moment they split up and the other two were out of earshot the girl had chattered constantly. When they'd met up later to share their mutual failure at finding those they were looking for the girl had chattered. During the entirety of the lesson, during which both she and Gan had been working hard, the girl had chattered. She'd chattered all the day before too. It was irritating.

She stepped forward to correct Gan's stance, her hands going out to adjust the way he held his arms, before sighing and shaking her head as he flinched away from her and destroyed all her hard work. This wasn't working. It just wasn't, and she was out of patience. "Okay," she declared "That's enough for today. Maybe we'll have more luck tomorrow."

He flinched again, moved towards her, no doubt about to say something, probably stupid, so she held up her hand to stop him. "It's okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Same place?"

After an awkward pause she felt him nod "Yeah. Same place." He turned to go, gathering Chun-Hua as he went.

"Bye-bye Sheng!" the girl called out as her brother dragged her off.

"Bye," she acknowledged absently, starting back to the apartment. It wasn't Gan's fault that he wouldn't let her touch him, get too close, or at least she suspected it wasn't his fault. It made sense someone who'd been hurt the way he had was wary of strangers, and she was a stranger still. They hadn't known each other long enough for it to be otherwise. That didn't stop it from being irritating when it got in the way of her teaching him. He'd be such a good student if only- oh well.

Nothing she could do about it, aside from do her best to communicate what she wanted him to do with words instead of actions. If she could be heard over his sister.

It was late enough that Sokka would be home soon, that it was almost time for their meagre dinner; which was a relief as she was hungry. So hungry. Breakfast had been small, lunch small, dinner was probably going to be smaller; there just wasn't much left, and Sokka hadn't been paid yet. He was doing his best to make it last, she knew that, and he wasn't actually doing that bad at it, but she was looking forward to the day they had more money, more food. Hopefully when that day came some of the panic she could feel vibrating through him would ease a little.

They were having no luck finding the others, and to be honest she was starting to lose hope. They knew Aang and Katara, oh, and Suki, had been in the city, but for all they knew they might have informed the Earth King already and then left. If the others thought they were dead there would be no reason to stick around, and as they hadn't been rescued... _No_. She wasn't going to think like that. She wasn't going to lose hope, not when she was afraid that Sokka was in the process of doing it. He hadn't even ordered her out to search that morning when he was doing the laundry, and, okay, he had needed her help to fetch the water and earthbend the hooks out of the walls, but he hadn't made her help him do the bulk of the work, so she would have had plenty of time to look.

Maybe it was nothing. Maybe she was imagining things.

She hoped it was nothing.

Of course if he _had_ lost hope maybe she could convince him to leave the city and go looking for Aang and Katara somewhere else- or even go somewhere, make a different life for themselves. Of course, if the Fire Nation won nowhere would be safe.

She shook off those thoughts; they were pointless, not to mention counterproductive.

Cho's daughters were sitting huddled together in the courtyard of the apartment, whispering to each other as they did something with long strips of fine fabric. She could feel them freeze at her entrance, before they huddled closer together, quiet, undoubtedly watching her. There was something about them that reminded her of butterflies alighted on a flower, trembling with every gust of wind, ready to fly away at the slightest sign of danger. It reminded her a little of Gan, though not in any way she could easily put into words.

She could try smiling at them, try to be reassuring, but she knew that it would just make them tremble worse. Give the skinny woman she could feel leaving the outhouse something else to gossip about, give her fat companion another reason to whisper things, bad things, about the sort of boy she was.

She hated it so much here.

Making her way up to her apartment she passed Ming, who, like she did off and on every day, was leading her children down to the courtyard to play while she scrubbed the outhouse. As she passed the door of number four it opened and the fat woman's husband, a skinny man who always smelt of rotten milk and often of cheap, stale perfume and second rate incense, stepped out. He dodged her as she walked by, before spitting on the wooden walkway in her wake and sauntering off down to wherever he liked to spend his time. Really, really hated it here.

Sokka wasn't back yet, so she sat down on one of the lumpy cushions; she could smell dinner cooking, which made her stomach growl, but she was determined to wait for him to return before she ate. Boredom quickly made her mind wander, first to what Aang and Katara were doing right then, imagining where they were, if they were talking, if they missed her, missed Sokka, what they were eating, before her thoughts turned to her parents. She didn't want to think about them, about how they were, if they were still safe. If they missed her. If her mother had cried, if her mother _still_ cried. If her father... One day she'd go home. One day, after the war was won. She'd go home, maybe take Sokka with her. He'd like the food if nothing else.

Her parents were rich, very rich, and there had to be some reward for helping defeat the Fire Lord. They could buy a house together, she could just imagine it. A house full of rooms, full of furniture. He could cook, clean, take care of everything, and she could give earthbending lessons, boys and girls hanging on to her every word, no one chattering so she couldn't be heard. If the house was big enough they could both find someone and get married, start families, fill it full to bursting with laughing children who grew up without anything to fear, and she'd never have to say goodbye to him. They could stay together, she could keep him safe, always be his brother... wait. _What_? Okay, obviously hunger was starting to interfere with the way she thought- and _shouldn't he be back by now_?

Getting to her feet she headed to the door, making her way downstairs and through the courtyard on quick feet, heading straight for _The Spring Sparrowkeet_. The restaurant was busy, as usual, but she paid little attention to the people she pushed past on her quest to reach Mei-Chu, grabbing the woman by the arm to catch her attention. "Where's my sister?"

The woman tried to shake her off, distractedly querying "Your sister?'

"My sister," she repeated "_Xue-Lien!_"

Mei-Chu's attention was suddenly all hers "She's your sister?"

"Yes!" she snarled "Which isn't the point, because the point is _where is she?_"

The woman tsked "I don't know. None of us know. I sent her out earlier to deliver the Doctor's lunch and she hasn't come back yet." The woman shook her head "and she seemed like such a hard worker."

"_What do you mean __**she hasn't come back yet?**_" she hissed at the woman, her hand clenching around the soft flesh of Mei-Chu's arm.

"I mean just that," the woman snapped at her, yanking her arm free "she hasn't come back yet. I don't know where she is-" she paused, turned to face the restaurant in general, before bellowing "Xun! Jun! Ling-Mai! Auntie! Do you know where Xue-Lien is? She hasn't come back from delivering the Doctor's lunch."

She could feel people in the room shaking their heads, as well as hear an older woman say "No M'am," a young woman mutter "No, and I don't care either," and a young man grunt out a negative.

This was getting her nowhere. It just seemed so pointless-

"Do you mean Doctor Guo?" a man's voice called out from one of the tables.

"Yes," Mei-Chu replied.

"I heard there was an apartment collapse near his place, maybe the boy's sister has been held up because of it," the man said, shrugging.

"Again?" Mei-Chu sighed "Oh well, that'll be the reason she's late. It's good, means I won't have to fire her."

"_**You**_-" she managed to rein herself in before she could say something that jeopardised Sokka's future employment. If there was still a Sokka to be employed. "Tell me where this Doctor lives!"

Mei-Chu shook her head "Your sister's probably on her way back already. Wouldn't it be better to wait? Make sure you don't miss each other. If she still hasn't returned by the time the restaurant closes come back and I'll tell you then."

The temptation to explode at the bossy, know-it-all, miserable excuse for a woman was very, very hard to resist. The only thing that held her back was the fact that she may have a point. Not much of one, but she was fairly sure that if Sokka _was_ on his way back he wouldn't be all that happy to return to an empty apartment. "Fine!" she snarled "I'll be back if she doesn't return."

Whirling around she stalked out, scattering customers and wait-staff as she went. She stomped back into the apartment complex, climbing back upstairs to see if Sokka had returned while she was away. He hadn't.

She didn't know what to do. She just didn't. She was frightened, she didn't want to be, but she was.

She couldn't stay here in this empty apartment.

Before the thought had even fully crossed her mind she was out the door, heading for the courtyard, and from there to the outside of the complex. She flung herself through the gate, her senses shooting out through the cobblestones searching for Sokka. He wasn't there, of course he wasn't there.

Her fear was choking her.

She began to pace back and forth, agitated, muttering "Nothing's happened, nothing's happened, it'll be okay" to herself again and again. She wasn't sure how long she paced before she felt someone approaching her, a woman, Ae. "Is something wrong?" the woman asked, her voice politely inquisitive.

"My sister hasn't come back yet," she snapped out, not stopping her pacing.

"Hmm" the woman murmured, leaning back against the wall of the apartment complex "I'll wait with you, if you'd like."

"Do whatever you want," she replied, too busy worrying to care.

She wasn't sure exactly why she was so frightened for her companion, maybe it was because they'd been separated from Aang and Katara, maybe it was because of everything that had happened since then, those children in the forest, maybe, just maybe, it was because of Ba Sing Se, because there was something _wrong_ with the city, its people.

Someone was approaching, someone that felt _wrong_, but at the same time like- She stopped, frowned. That was Sokka. _Sokka_...

000


	19. Part 2, Chapter 11

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 2, Chapter 11.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.

Warnings for this part: WARNING: THIS CHAPTER MAY BE TRIGGERING FOR SOME READERS, PROCEED WITH CAUTION. Attempted rape. References to the aftermath of a tragic event. References to  
violence and suffering. Offensive and possibly triggering language. Crossdressing.

Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Notes: Sorry if I didn't get back to you if you reviewed, things have been fairly hectic.

000

Exhaustion weighed him down like an anvil strapped around his neck. His vision seemed to waver, ripple, like the air above a rock baked in the sun. He kept walking, he had to keep walking, he had to get home, get back to Toph- she'd be worried, he'd been gone too long and she'd be worried. She'd be worried.

Each step felt like it was dragging through thick mud, each step- he studied the road in front of him, nothing but the road. If he looked down, at himself, he'd see the blood and he didn't want to see the blood.

If he saw the blood he'd hear the screaming, the crying, the wailing. If he saw the blood he'd remember, and there were too many broken bodies trying to crowd their way behind the lids of his eyes for him to want to remember.

No, better to study the road.

One foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other.

He hoped Toph had eaten, he hoped she was okay. There was no reason for her to have been _there,_ so she had to be okay.

One foot in front of the other.

He felt like he had been walking for eternity- maybe the doctor had been right, maybe he should have spent the night there- but _Toph_. No, he had to get home. _Not home, never home, __**back to the apartment**_. He had to-

One foot in front of the other.

There wasn't long now, he hoped so anyway; the bright lights and obscene false cheer of the red light district was just up ahead. _One foot-_

Stepping into the harsh glare of the red light district was like stepping through a curtain of acid. He flinched away from it, away from everything that came along with it. Every shout, every cackle of laughter, every song became the whimpers of dying children, the screams of broken women, the sharp denials of men who would never work or walk again. He couldn't bear it.

Instinct drove him out of the light of the main street and into the alleyways, stumbling from shadow to shadow in the darkness. There were people in the dark with him, but they were _busy_ and his eyes flitted away from them before he could ever register what they were busy doing.

_One foot, one foot_-

Light suddenly invaded his darkened world as a door was flung open; as he walked past he half registered a group of men struggling before some of them were shoved out into the alleyway. "_**Do you know who my father is?**_" one of them shouted.

He heard the reply of "Why would _I_ know when your _mother_ doesn't?" before the fleeting amount of attention he was paying fluttered off. _It was none of his business_.

One foot in front of the other.

Not long now. Not long now.

Not long now.

He had to keep walking- _why had he stopped?_

It took a moment to register the hand gripping his upper arm, but when he did he forced his eyes to follow it up to the man holding him still. _The man-_ young and obviously wealthy, and arrogant from the smirk on his face. The smirk matched by the one on the face of one of the two other men standing with him.

"What?" he whispered, wondering vaguely why the man was stopping him.

"How much?" the man replied, his teeth flashing in the half-light of the alleyway "How much for the three of us?"

He didn't understand. "What?"

The man was looking at him as if he was stupid. "How much would it cost for the three of us to fuck you?"

"_WHAT?_" he squawked, reality intruding on the fog he was using to shelter his mind "you have the wrong idea, I'm not a prostitute!"

The man snorted, clenched his fingers until they were more than tight enough to bruise, and drawled "How much to change your mind then?"

He shook his head "No. No, I'm not- I'm not going to just sell myself because- _look, _you're in the middle of the red-light district, find someone else." _Why was this happening? Why was this happening? Why was this happening?_

"Are you hearing this?" the man asked the world at large "You're hearing this right? This little _slut_ just denied me. _**Me!**_" _he wasn't a- why was this __**happening?**_ "Look girlie, I've been thrown out of three whorehouses already tonight, I'm fucking-" the man- _bastard_- broke off with a sound of soul-deep aggravation, before continuing with quiet, disconcerting, menace "_if you won't sell it then I'll just take it_."

_Why-?_

He didn't even know how to begin to respond to this situation. This wasn't a situation he ever expected to get into in the first place. This- the man had reached out and grabbed one of his fake breasts, was obviously squeezing it hard enough to hurt if it was real. "Hey! Get off me asshole!" he snarled, punching the guy in the face with his uncontained arm.

The guy wheeled away with a sound like a wounded mooselion, grabbing at his jaw. "You worthless little _bitch_!" the man hissed, moving to hit him. He dodged and punched the man in the jaw again, only to have his wrist caught and twisted up behind him- not by the man, or at least _that_ man, but by one of the man's companions. He struggled, almost got his arm free, but the ringleader had recovered enough to punch him hard in the stomach. All the air rushed out of his lungs, his eyes watered, he felt like he was going to throw up.

_There was something making a wounded noise, like an animal hurt, like an animal that knew it was going to die. There was something-_

He kicked out at the ringleader, catching him in the ribs, making the man go down momentarily. _If only he was wearing those stupid shoes, they'd have broken the guy's ribs_- The man holding his arm twisted it further, yanking him up onto his tiptoes. He squealed, high-pitched and sharp. _He was going to die. He was going to end up like that girl in the forest._ He kicked backwards, trying to dislodge his captor. "_Stop struggling bitch!_" the man holding him snarled, punching him hard in the face and grabbing his other arm. Lights flashed behind his eyes as everything went dark for a moment. He shook his head, tried to shake it off, arched his neck back, twisted, tried to dig his _teeth_ in anywhere it was soft.

He should be stronger than this, he should be- _but he was tired, so tired, tired to the bone, tired right down to his __**soul**__, and this was the last thing he had ever expected. He hadn't been ready_. _**He was such a failure. **__He didn't want to leave Toph- he wanted._

_**Katara...**_

The ringleader had picked himself up off the ground, was coming towards him fist back, ready to strike- somehow he dodged the blow, somehow, which put the man within his reach. He lunged forward and headbutted the man as hard as he could. Stars exploded behind his eyes again, darkness tried to take him, but somehow he held on, forcing his eyes open to discover the ringleader lying sprawled on the ground. _Unconscious._

For a second hope flashed through him, renewing his struggles, until suddenly the other man -the third man- the man who he had almost forgotten- was holding a knife to his throat. "Stop struggling or I'll slit your throat, gut you and fuck your corpse," the man stated, his voice bland.

_He was going to die_.

"Let go of the girl!"

_He was going to die_.

"I _said_ **let go of the girl!**" a voice said from near his left ear, as the knife disappeared from his throat, and the man who had been holding him let go with a cry of surprise. He collapsed to his knees near the prostrate form of the ringleader, the strength gone from his legs, unable even to make himself turn around to witness the struggle he could hear going on behind him.

He wasn't sure what happened, but soon he heard the sound of footsteps pounding into the stone as the men fled, his rescuer in pursuit. He looked at the man lying unconscious in front of him with a strange sense of detachment, as he hauled himself to his feet. The first kick landed in the man's side, the second in the man's gut, and the third, and the forth, and then he lost count. _He wanted to destroy him, to __**obliterate**__ him._

The man made a wounded noise, jerking away from his foot. He kept kicking. _He kept kicking_._ He was going to keep kicking 'till there was nothing left to kick._

He was so absorbed in his rage that he barely registered that the man he was kicking had regained consciousness. So absorbed that he reacted too late when the man grabbed his ankle, his _other_ ankle- the one he wasn't kicking with- and _pulled_. Knocking him off balance, knocking him off his feet. Making him go down backwards –_hard-_ and knocking the breath from his lungs once more.

The world was shimmering, a _blur. _He heard the man moving about, dragging himself away, but he couldn't make himself get up. _Couldn't_. Squeezing his eyes shut, squeezing the tears out to run down his temple and soak into the cloth of his bonnet, he felt the first sob tear its way out of his chest. Slowly he curled up on himself, still weeping, lying in the dirt. He heard footsteps approaching at a run, only to slow down when they were near. The voice from before, the voice of his rescuer called out hesitantly. "Um- the- Um? Are you okay? I thought I should come back in case the other one had woken up- though I can see that he's gone now- _He didn't hurt you, did he?_ Miss?"

Uncurling enough to peer up at his rescuer he gasped in shock "Zuko?" forcing himself up to his knees he asked the first question that came to mind. The most important question. "_Do you know where Aang and Katara are?_"

000


	20. Part 3, Chapter 1

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 3, Chapter 1.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: WARNING: THIS CHAPTER MAY BE TRIGGERING FOR SOME READERS, PROCEED WITH CAUTION. Attempted rape. References to the aftermath of a tragic event. References to violence and suffering. Offensive and possibly triggering language. for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least : Okay, so we're in the middle of some renovations right now(with the usual way these things have of taking longer than they're supposed to), and I'm not actually getting as much time to write or even access the internet as I'd like, so my level of replying to your reviews will probably be worse than usual- if such a thing was possible. It also means I don't know when the next chapter will be done. Sorry everyone.

000

He hadn't slept well since Jet had been taken by the guards. Not out of guilt or anything like that, but because he was waiting. Waiting for Jet to be believed, waiting for the authorities to show up, waiting to be dragged off and imprisoned if not outright killed. Waiting.

His uncle didn't seem to see the danger, seemed to think they were safe, but that couldn't make him sleep easy, couldn't stop him from taking to the streets and walking for hours on end, hoping that that way at least he'd see them coming.

This time he'd gotten lost and it had taken hours, _hours_, before he could make his way back. He was still a way away from their apartment and approaching it from a direction he wasn't used to, a _place_ he wasn't used to, full of bright lights, loud sounds, and people doing- behaving- in the most- Ugh.

He'd taken to the roofs the minute he'd realised that he'd stumbled into the red-light district, embarrassment making his cheeks burn. There was no way he was letting his uncle find out about this- he'd never hear the end of it. He kept eyes focussed forward, ignoring the laughter, music, shouting, screaming, and moaning of the streets below. The sooner he got out of there the better.

A faint and terrible sound a few streets away, like that of an animal being tortured, killed, rose to his ears, jolting through him. Reflexively, without thought, he darted towards that sound. He crested the rise of a sharply sloping roof and found himself staring down into a poorly lit alleyway, a struggle going on below. There were three men attacking a girl who was making the noise, part anger and part terror, as she did her best to fight the off.

She managed to knock one out, but her victory was only momentary as one of the men, the one whose expression had not changed during the entire commotion, stepped forward and held a knife to her throat, speaking in an ordinary tone, as though discussing the weather. "Stop struggling or I'll slit your throat, gut you and fuck your corpse."

He was already halfway down the roof before he'd fully registered the horror of what he'd heard, the words "Let go of the girl!" roaring out of his mouth. His hand went straight for the knife as he snarled "I _said_ **let go of the girl!"** snatching it out of the hand of the man whose expression still didn't change. The man holding the girl cried out in surprise and let her go, turning to punch him. He dodged, landing a vicious blow to the man's ribs, before being forced to block a strike by the man who had held the knife.

He heard more than saw the man who had been holding the girl make a run for it, too busy trying to subdue the other man. With the retreat of his companion the expressionless man seemed to have lost interest in both the girl and the fight, because soon after he turned and ran too. He chased after them, following as they made straight for the bright lights and bustle of the main streets. It didn't take long for him to work out why, as they disappeared into the crowd, becoming invisible in front of his eyes. He didn't know his way around and the lights, the sounds, the smells dazzled him, bewildered him, driving him back the way he came.

Fear for the girl put speed in his step, exacerbated by the realisation that he'd left her with one of her attackers. He stumbled back into the alleyway to find her curled up on her side, ugly, wounded sobs escaping her. The other man was gone. He said something, not paying too much attention to what was coming out of his mouth, terrified that she'd been hurt worse _after_ he'd rescued her. His voice made her uncurl a little, but when she did she gasped "Zuko?" and uncurled fully, yelping out "_Do you know where Aang and Katara are?_"

_What...?_

The Avatar and the Water Tribe girl? He peered at the girl crumpled on the ground in front of him, taking in the dark skin, the paler eyes (though he couldn't see their colour in the dim light) and the shape of the girl's face. No, not a girl; this mess of garish green cloth, blood and bruises was the Water Tribe boy. Whatever his name was.

"Huh...?" This was making his brain hurt.

"Aang and Katara! Isn't that why you're here? Why else would you be here? _Here?_" the boy stared at him with eager eyes before his face fell and he sunk in on himself, looking so small, so very small "You don't know where they are, do you? It's just a coincidence."

"The Avatar is in the city?" if he was- that had to be a- a- _sign_ or something. His luck just might be turning around. The boy opened his mouth to reply before frowning, closing it again. He was just about to ask again when light flooded into the alleyway from above.

He looked up to find that a middle-aged woman with a heavily made-up face had opened the wooden shutter on a window and stuck her head out. "Whatever you're up to you can get up to it somewhere else!" she snarled "You're scaring the customers away." He glared up at her for a moment, before deciding that it would probably be better if he took the Water Tribe boy somewhere else to question him further, he turned back to the boy, preparing to drag him off somewhere, only to discover that he was gone. Had run off while he was glaring at the woman.

Just his luck.

Snarling at the universe in general he stomped off down the alleyway, before ascending once more to the roofs and breaking into a run, he had to make it through the rest of the red-light district, that strange district near the market, and then market itself before he'd be in their neighbourhood. The boy would be long gone now, had probably escaped into the crowded streets just like his attackers...

He stopped running, his anger draining away, fading to nothing, a strange sort of horror taking its place. _His attackers_...

000

He scrambled away, the cobblestones tearing at his fingertips as he pushed himself upright and away, fleeing from the alley. Making his way out into the bright vulgarity of the main street he lurched along with bruised ribs, swallowing back the small sounds of distress he could feel fighting to make their way out of his throat.

He had almost blurted out everything to Zuko, almost told him they'd lost Aang, lost- , and that he was in the city, because of the eclipse, because they had to tell the Earth King- What was _wrong_ with him? What was-? Just because Zuko's was the first familiar face he'd seen. Just because...

It was all too much, everything was too much. He flung himself into the shadowed alcove between two shops and fell to his knees, vomiting up what little food he'd eaten that day along with entirely too much bile. Hard, savage sobs ripped their way out of his throat when he was done but he didn't try to swallow them down, just let himself cry. He couldn't cry later, when he got home, couldn't let Toph know what had almost happened to him. That he'd almost left her all alone in the world. He had to be strong, be strong for her.

"Are you alright?" a soft voice called from behind him "Do you need help?"

He felt like he was shaking apart, but somehow he managed to pull himself together enough to look over his shoulder. The girl was his age, or perhaps a little older; it was hard to tell through all the makeup. She was short and very thin, hungry thin, and the barely-existent length of her dress, cheap cloth died bright pink and covered in a riotous display of rough embroidery, as well as the low cut of its neckline, marked out her profession. She gave him a gentle smile, but didn't come any closer, instead stood there with her hands open where he could see them. "If you need help, I'm willing to help you," she said carefully, as though speaking to a wild animal "I won't hurt you, for what it's worth I promise you that."

"I don't need-" he murmured, hauling himself slowly to his feet. His gut hurt, his ribs, his _head_. He reeled a little when he was upright, feeling dazed and weak. So weak.

He could see movement out of the corner of his eye, sense the girl getting closer carefully. "It's alright, I promise I won't hurt you," she said gently as she approached, her hand fluttering up to brush the air near his bruised cheek. "Oh you poor thing," she whispered, tsking, "If you want to get cleaned up my place isn't very far. I don't have much but I have a basin and water, some tea if you want it."

He shook his head, he didn't know this girl, didn't know why she was offering to help, and most importantly he had to get back to Toph. She must be so scared by now. "I have to go."

"Okay," the girl said, backing off with a sad smile, "Be careful out there" she said as she walked back to the main street and disappeared into the crowd. He followed along soon after, edging his way through the crowd, his mind on getting back to the apartment. Even though he wasn't sure what he felt about his encounter with the girl, it had given him the distraction he needed to get himself together. Somehow he had managed not to get vomit on his clothes, though he couldn't do anything about the blood and dirt, the bruises and his tear-reddened eyes. He did the best he could to get his face clean using his sleeve, not that Toph would be able to see it, but it made him feel a little better. She was going to be able to sense something was wrong and there was no way he'd be able to hide it.

If he was lucky she'd believe his distress was solely caused by the apartment collapse when he told her about it. He didn't feel that lucky though.

Somehow he avoided any more trouble on his way through the red-light district, finding himself back in their neighbourhood before he knew it. Toph was pacing frantically back and forth outside the ornate gate of their apartment complex, muttering quietly to herself. Strangely enough Ae seemed to be keeping her company, but before he had the time to do anything more than register it Toph had turned towards him, a frown on her face.

There was a brief pause before she flung herself at him, arms outstretched. He found himself flinching back, bracing himself for the inevitable pain, but she'd already slowed, stopped. "Where were you?" she cried out "What _happened?_ I was so..." she trailed off, "_Xue Lien_?"

"I'm fine," he said, proud when his voice didn't crack on the lie "An apartment complex collapsed and I ended up helping out. I'm sorry if I worried you."

000


	21. Part 3, Chapter 2

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 3, Chapter 2.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: References to attempted rape. References to the aftermath of a tragic event. References to violence and suffering. Crossdressing.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Notes: So the renovations, or at least the ones that affect me, are finally over. Just in time for Uni to start on Monday. Yay, or something. So I managed to get this written, but I'm not sure when the next chapter will be finished.

000

Breakfast tasted like ashes in his mouth; he had no appetite, but he had to eat, he had no keep going. Light came in weakly from the latticed windows, leaving a dappled pattern on everything it touched, like sunlight filtering through leaves. He felt numb. Dead. Cold and hard and frozen to his bones.

The day before wore at him, seemed to sit on his chest and force all the air out. Maybe he had died in that alleyway, it felt like it.

Toph sat near him, but not too near, her presence at once faintly comforting and horrifically oppressing. He wanted to be alone and it made him feel guilty. He wasn't the only one trapped in this awful life, this awful place, and she deserved better, but he couldn't quite make himself okay, and the pressure of having to _try_ for her sake was strangling him.

It wasn't her fault, of course she was concerned. He knew he wasn't doing a good job of acting like there was nothing wrong.

He managed about half his small bowl of rice-porridge before he gave up, handing it to Toph without a word as he got to his feet. The _clunk_ of his heavy wooden soles against the stone floor was reassuring. Until they could afford weapons he wasn't going anywhere without them, they were the only thing he had to defend himself aside from his fists, and the night before had shown him how well that would work. He smoothed down his outfit, readjusting the heavy black cloth of his new pair of voluminous trousers with a glance to their washing line where his violently green _Spring Sparrowkeet_ uniform hung, still too damp to wear. The night before, while Toph ate and he picked at his own dish of stew, he'd carefully mended the cuts and tears it had suffered in his misadventures, before washing both it and himself.

Hopefully Mei-Chu would understand; hopefully. If she didn't maybe she'd give him his pay before firing him, it _was_ payday after all.

He slipped the knee length, black-on-black embroidered jacket over his standard white shirt with the back collar and cuffs, and fastened its black-stone toggles, looking to Toph when he was done. She had finished her breakfast and was stretching, preparing to get to her feet so they could start their futile search.

They didn't have enough dried meat left for him to start a stew for lunch, they had a little bit, sure, but not enough. Unless they wanted the expense of eating at a restaurant that night, _if _he was paid, both lunch and dinner were going to have to be rice or millet and maybe a mouthful or two of dried meat. If he got his pay the first thing he would do the next morning was go to the market and get some _food_, even before getting some new posters done.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked Toph, speaking for the first time since he'd awoken from a surprisingly deep, and thankfully _dreamless,_ sleep.

"Yeah," she replied, standing and walking to the door; he followed after, shutting the door behind them.

It was shaping up to be a beautiful, sunny day, a fact that left him feeling the faint aftertaste of annoyance. Clouds, rain, _lightening_ would be more fitting, he felt, though the weather wasn't there to pander to his emotional state. They walked in silence to where they'd left off the day before-the day before, before commencing their search, as futile as it felt, again in silence. The next couple of hours were filled with the sound of his shoes clacking against the cobbles, the sound of the unasked questions welling up in Toph's throat, the sound of the crowd, but never the sound of their voices.

At least he could no longer hear screams.

It was nearing lunchtime, work time, so they turned around, beginning the trek back; he gave the street one last glimpse over his shoulder, before freezing. He'd caught a glimpse of blue fabric disappearing around a corner, blue fabric, _Katara_. He opened his mouth to shout her name, except a man was suddenly stumbling into him. "Sorry miss," the man said, staggering back and leaning heavily on his cane "Didn't mean to stumble into you."

"That's okay," he mumbled, distracted, eyes darting around, hoping for another glimpse of blue.

The man kept getting in the way, moving into his field of vision "Are you sure miss?"

"Yes, yes," he waved off the man's concern "I'm sure."

"Are you sure you're sure?" and, okay, this was starting to get irritating. The man was too _close_.

Before he had a chance to reply, Toph was snapping "Yes, she's sure. Now leave us _alone_."

The man drew himself up, looking down his nose at both of them. "If you want to be like that," he hissed, contempt clinging to his words as he turned and hobbled off down the street.

Toph sighed and shook her head "What is _wrong_ with the people in this city? Why won't they leave us alone?"

"I honestly don't know," he replied, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder. She covered his hand with her own, giving it a quick squeeze in return, before turning to him and speaking.

"It felt like something startled you before we were interrupted?"

"I saw, _thought I saw_, someone wearing blue over there, going around that corner. Did you sense- sense _her_?"

She shook her head. "It's far enough away that things are a bit fuzzy, and I was focussing in the other direction." She paused, looking down "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," he said, "but if it was her she may still be here."

Toph nodded, and as one they started in that direction. He kept his eyes open as they turned the corner, but he didn't see even the slightest flash of blue. They went from shop to shop, searching inside and asking the people they met, but no one had seen anyone who matched her description, and it was getting late, he had to get back if he wanted to get to work on time.

"This is pointless," he sighed "Come on; if we hurry there'll be time for lunch." Toph walked along beside him for a few streets, before stopping. "What?"

"I think some of them were lying," she said, a contemplative frown on her face.

He whirled to face her "What do you mean, 'you think'? Either they were or they weren't! And why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

She shrugged "They were terrified. Really, honestly, terrified. So I'm not completely sure it wasn't just their fear I was sensing."

"Oh," if only they had time to go back, to ask more questions, but that might not have been- _her_- and if it wasn't... it just wasn't worth losing his job over. "Could you come back while I'm at work? Look around, see what you can find."

She nodded, said "Yes" decisively.

"Good," he sighed, "We'd better get going."

They were approaching the market when the crowd began to thicken again, when he saw people fleeing as surreptitiously as possible, when the anxiety level of the populace began to increase and shouts began to rise above the throng. It was going to be another blockade, he just knew it. "Do you have your passport?" he asked Toph as he checked to make sure his was still in his pocket.

"Yeah," she replied "Why?"

"Because, if I'm right, there are men up ahead inspecting them."

"Should we find another way?" she asked.

He shook his head "I don't think any of the other streets will be clear either. What's the point of a blockade if people can find their way around it?"

She grunted, noncommittal, but didn't say anything else. The crowd moved slowly forward, pulling them along until he could see the green uniformed guards, see the people bound with rope, see the same sights as the last time. Unlike the last time, this time a guard, looking bored, distracted, asked to see his passport, Toph's. They showed him their documents and were waved through, just before a scuffle broke out after a large man hit another one of the guards in the face. He led Toph away without looking back, _what could he do? It was none of his business_.

The delay meant that he didn't have time for lunch, not even time to return to the apartment itself. He stopped in front of _The Spring Sparrowkeet_ and turned to Toph "I need to get to work now; I know it's not much, but have the last of the dried meat for lunch, okay?"

She didn't say anything for a long moment before shrugging, "yeah. See ya."

"Bye."

He turned to the restaurant and took a deep breath, hoping he wasn't about to be fired, before walking inside. Jun looked up as he entered, an ugly smirk crossing her pretty, painted face. She preened a bit, readjusting her neckline so it showed just a tad more flesh, before turning to Xun, who was lounging near the back of the room. "Xun," she simpered, batting her lashes "Should I go get your mother? _That_ girl has come back."

Xun grunted, but was saved the trouble of answering when Mei-Chu entered from the kitchen.

"Oh, you came back," the woman said, looking him up and down, her eyes lingering on his bruised face "I suppose you have an explanation for yesterday, as well as what's happened to your uniform?"

He nodded, thinking carefully about what he was going to say. He wanted it to be short, concise, and above all else he didn't want her asking questions about what had happened to him the day before. He didn't want to have to _think_ about everything that had happened the day before. "An apartment collapsed when I was delivering the doctor's lunch. He asked me to help him, which I did, this led to my uniform being damaged and stained with blood." _All those people, all those __**lives**_- "I've mended it and washed it, but it's not dry yet so I can't wear it. I'm sorry," and those words burned. _What did he have to be sorry for?_ "For the inconvenience."

Mei-Chu nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I'll take your word for now, though I will be checking with the doctor to make sure you're not lying. I won't be paying you for yesterday. Or today, as I expect you to pay for the spare uniform that I'll be getting for you so that this doesn't happen again."

That meant she _would_ be paying him, just not much. With two day's pay docked just then, plus half a day for the first uniform, he'd only be getting three silver. After the cost of the posters there wouldn't be that much for food, enough to last the week probably, but they weren't going to be eating anywhere but at home, and nothing too fancy. "I still have the job then?"

Mei-Chu rolled her eyes "Yes. Now get to it."

000

Something had happened to Sokka the day before. Something bad. Really bad. He thought he was being subtle, thought he was hiding it, but she could feel it rotting away at his core. He felt frozen, like ice, or glass, maybe glass was a better description, since it felt like he could shatter at any moment.

Maybe it was what he said it was, maybe it was just due to what he'd seen when he helped with the collapsed apartment, that would be more than horrible enough, but he'd felt like he was lying, and she wasn't mistaking terror for a lie either. She knew him too well for that.

No, something had happened to him, and if she discovered that it was a _someone_ that had hurt him- well, what was one less monster in this monstrous world. She raised her head as Gan and Chun-Hue approached, for now she would focus on finding out if that had been Katara.

000


	22. Part 3, Chapter 3

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 3, Chapter 3.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for this part: References to attempted rape. References to the aftermath of a tragic event. References to violence and suffering. Crossdressing.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Notes: I have been so busy this semester at Uni, it's unbelievable. I don't think I ever got around to replying to any of the reviews for the last chapter, and I'm sorry about that, I'll try to do better this time. Also I'm not sure when I'll get time to write more because the next few weeks are going to be pretty terrible as far as lack of time, intensity of study, and scheduling problems, but I wanted to get something posted so you don't think I've forgotten about this story.

000

His head hurt, his eyes felt like they were full of sand, and he knew he was being grumpy, snapping at his uncle more than usual. He hadn't slept well. Actually, that was an understatement; he hadn't really slept at all, guilt kept gnawing at him.

He wasn't used to feeling like the bad-guy.

It was galling to admit, but he'd handled the night before badly, handled what had happened to the Water Tribe boy badly. His honour, capturing the Avatar, was important to him, incredibly so, and he knew in a abstracted kind of way that he tended to be a bit single minded about it, which wasn't something he was actually ashamed of. As far as he was concerned there was worth in being focussed, in not letting oneself become distracted from ones goals. However, he was ashamed that he'd let it take him over to the point that he hadn't even made sure the boy was alright once he realised who it was.

Especially considering what had almost happened to the boy. He knew such things occurred, he wasn't naive, he'd heard about it both before and after his exile, and his uncle had explained the motivations for such behaviour, as well as informing him of exactly what the older man would do to him if he ever committed that particular act himself. So he understood that it was a horrible thing and a sign of a deep, irreparable weakness, flaw, in the spirit of the people who perpetrated it. That it was damaging, _devastating_, to the victims. He understood all that, had understood all that the night before, and had been so preoccupied with the Avatar that he had completely ignored it.

His uncle would not be impressed, which was one, only one, of the reasons he wasn't about to tell him. At least not yet. Not until he'd had at least a couple of days to think it over, contemplate his own actions, what the boy's presence in the city meant, whether he should be searching for either the Avatar or the boy, whether he should try to make amends. As it was he was just too confused, uncertain in a way he didn't like.

Perhaps he should try meditating.

_After_ work, of course. If it ever ended. The sun was still high in the sky, yet he felt like he'd been trapped in this dingy little shop for an eternity. It felt too hot inside, stifling, airless, as though the room was filled with some type of thick, cloying paste instead of anything breathable. With a longing glance towards the door to the shop, and the world outside it, he picked up the tray his uncle was handing to him and walked over to deposit its contents in front of the fine-boned old lady who had ordered the ginseng tea.

His uncle was chatting away happily to a couple of guards, seated at their usual table, all comfort and ease. Untroubled. Happy in their new life in a way that he found distasteful, grating. He couldn't stand it. Not today.

With a sigh he turned back to work, there was nothing he could do about anything, at least not now.

000

The delivery business was starting to pick up. He didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, it meant he didn't have to stay at _The Spring Sparrowkeet_ trying to avoid hearing Jun gossip about him to Ling-Mai and the quiet, blank-eyed older woman who he had learned everyone called 'Auntie', not that the older woman payed anyone much attention. It meant he could escape Xun's sticky, cloying gaze, Mei-Chu's unspoken though unbearably _loud_ disapproval, the sympathy or contempt on the faces of the customers. It also meant that he was forced out into the city, the crowd, the _gaze_ of the people he passed, and now he didn't have Toph to deflect any of it.

He hoped he had seen Katara earlier, that he would see her again. Some part of him feeling that now that he'd suffered, been _punished_ for whatever slight he'd given the universe, he could have his reward. He could find his sister, find Aang, leave Ba Sing Se and never, _ever_, return. It wasn't safe in the city, not safe at all.

His stomach kept growling, empty. He hadn't really eaten the night before, he hadn't finished breakfast, hadn't had lunch, and the smell of food wafting from within the covered wooden cart as he pushed it was filling him with both hunger and nausea. He was half convinced that if he ate something he'd throw it back up again, so it was probably a good thing that he didn't have anything to eat, didn't have any money to buy something either. Their last, tiny bronze coin was so light where it sat in the pocket of his trousers that he couldn't even feel it, it didn't even distort the flow of the cloth.

Stopping in front of a small, unassuming tailor's shop he unlocked the wooden cart and removed the smaller wooden boxes that were marked with '1' and '3', carrying them carefully inside. A tiny old woman with surprisingly clear, shrewd eyes took delivery of the platters of steamed buns, steamed dumplings and fried dumplings that the boxes contained, carrying them into the back of the shop as he walked out the door.

There was only one more delivery he had to make before he would have to return to _The Spring Sparrowkeet_, and he quickly dropped the plate of fried noodles and two platters of steamed dumplings off at a small shop selling jewellery made of carved stone. It was time to go back, except that he didn't want to.

The thought of returning to that shop...

He felt cold, so cold. Cold and hungry and more than a little sick of it all. That single bronze coin he couldn't feel seemed to be burning a hole in his pocket; he needed something to stave off reality for a while and shopping would be the perfect distraction if he had the money. Maybe it was where he came from, but he liked shopping, liked being able to acquire things without constructing them first. Buying something to eat and then hanging around to eat it would be another good distraction, even if he ended up throwing it back up again, but again he didn't have the money. In fact just about the only thing he had the money for was a cup of tea. Which, come to think of it, would be nice about now.

It would be warm, for a start, would do something, though not much, to fill the empty void clawing at his stomach without making him throw up. Actually a cup of tea sounded like a good idea, and, since he would be getting paid at the end of the day, he didn't even have to feel guilty for using the money.

He was thinking about darting into one of the restaurants he passed to order a cup when he spotted a tea shop up ahead. It was small and sort of run-down, like most things in the lower ring, but the tea would probably be better than in a restaurant and if he was going to waste their last bronze coin he might as well do his best to enjoy it.

Parking the wagon outside the building he pushed the door open and stepped inside, standing in the shop he looked around, trying to spot a menu with a price list. There was no point in sitting down if he couldn't afford anything. "Can I help you?" a bored voice asked from behind him.

He turned to ask the waiter how much a cup of tea would be, only to find himself face to face with Zuko. He stared, Zuko stared, and then he turned and flung himself out of the shop, his heart beating loudly in his ears, only to be stopped by a hand digging in to his bruised arm before he could even grab the wagon. Instinctively he lashed out, aiming for Zuko's face.

000

He couldn't even bring himself to plaster on a fake smile as he refilled the tea cups in front of a woman and her husband, before moving on to the next table. He heard the door swing open behind him, _oh great, a new customer_.

Turning around he saw a young woman standing in the shop, looking about as if she was searching for something. She had some kind of bonnet on her head, concealing her hair, and she was dressed distinctively, all in black aside from the band of intensely colourful embroidery that stretched from the hem of her skirt almost to her knees and the white fabric of her sleeves above the black cuffs that he could just glimpse peeking out from the sleeves of her jacket. She did not look Earth Kingdom, or at least like the people of Ba Sing Se, but then he couldn't say exactly _where_ she looked like she was from.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

She turned to reply and he found himself facing the Water Tribe boy. _Huh_.

They stared at each other for a long moment before the boy fled from the shop, from him, only he wasn't about to let the boy get away this time. Flinging himself after the boy he called out "I'm taking a break!" to his uncle, hoping the older man wouldn't follow. The boy was reaching for a wagon parked outside the shop and he just wanted to stop him, prevent him from escaping, so he reached out, grabbed him. The boy froze momentarily, his every muscle turning to stone, before whirling around, lashing out.

He blocked the blow, and the next, and the next, before it occurred to him that maybe it would be a good idea to back away, let the boy know he wasn't going to hurt him. Because he'd forgotten again, become distracted, and the boy had faced enough horror the night before to have him compounding it. Raising his hands he stepped back, trying to look as nonthreatening as possible.

The boy was shaking, sucking in rapid panting breaths, staring at him with eyes that quickly lost their glazed look. After a long moment the boy regained his composure, straightening out of the defensive crouch he'd fallen into, smoothing his clothes, a deep blush staining his cheeks. "Zuko-" he murmured softly, though then seemed at a loss to think of anything more to say.

Not that he could think of anything either; he didn't even know the boy's name. The Avatar's name, yes, The Water Tribe girl's, yes, but not the boy's. The boy wasn't a bender, wasn't a real threat, not really, so he'd had no reason to care. No reason to try and remember it any of the times he heard it.

He couldn't take the silence anymore, so he said "I'm sorry for grabbing you like that."

The Water Tribe boy shrugged awkwardly, fidgeting a little, "I'm not sorry for- you know, hitting you."

He didn't want the boy to be sorry, they were enemies, and though he didn't exactly believe the boy had every right to hit him just for existing, he shouldn't have upset him in the first place and he should have handled the night before better. "We should-" he didn't know how to say it, make the boy agree, not run off "maybe- um-" the boy was frowning at him, and okay, "It might be a good idea if we went somewhere to talk. Somewhere where we won't be overheard."

The boy studied him for a moment with eyes that seemed too old for his face, before nodding "Okay."

They walked in silence for a couple of blocks, looking out for somewhere to talk. He spotted a narrow alley between a loudly bustling cake shop and a derelict building with its windows boarded up, he gestured for the boy to follow as he made his way down it.

000


	23. Part 3, Chapter 4

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 3, Chapter 4.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.  
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.  
Notes: Time to apologise again. This chapter's apology is based around the fact that I've been ill. Ill in a way that means it has been almost impossible to read, use the computer or write. I'm still trapped in the diagnostic process currently, but my next appointment is in a couple of weeks so I should find out what it is then. This is not a new malady, but there hasn't seemed much point in complaining about it before now. None of this is a plea for sympathy by the way, I just want to explain. Anyway, I've been feeling a bit better this last couple of weeks so a new chapter for you all- and yes, it is probably too short, but better than trying to write more and not being able to.

000

The alley was thin, stacked with years of rotten boards and crates, mysterious piles of stinking rubbish that seemed to be a combination of rag and vegetable, bits of old tile and clay pipe. Possibly some kind of meat, or maybe dead vermin. It was hazardous going, but at the same time that very fact seemed to have deterred most humans from attempting it. Over the vinegar sharp scent of rotting vegetables and the thicker, cloying scent of rotting meat he could smell the cakes baking in the shop next to it; it was a nauseating combination, though his stomach still growled.

Zuko was striding up ahead, his head moving back and forth in search of a good place to stop and talk, though he didn't seem to be able to find one. He couldn't blame the other boy, he didn't particularly want to stand and speak over a pile of glistening, reeking muck either. He'd left the cart hidden behind a pile of crates at the mouth of the alley; he hoped it would still be there when he got back. If it wasn't he suspected he wasn't going to be paid.

This wasn't a good idea, he knew that, but what else could he do. _Run away?_ Zuko would find him, Zuko always found who he was looking for. Beyond that he couldn't quite make himself leave, Zuko was a familiar face after all, someone who would look at him and see _him_, not just see the girl he was pretending to be; so scared, almost alone in a strange and dangerous place, so different from everyone else, a thing to gawk at and do things to and _hurt_ as if she wasn't really a person. He was tired, so very tired, and he should never have left home; it's not like he'd been of any help. They were probably doing fine without him, Aang and his- his sister.

A grumble of irritation from the boy he was following dragged him out of his thoughts. Zuko had stopped, still, though his shoulders were up, his muscles tense, irritation oozing out of him. It was a strangely comforting sight, for no other reason than the familiarity of it. Suddenly the other boy lashed out, making him flinch away as the prince ripped off the decaying wooden boards, haphazardly nailed over the empty socket that had once held a wood and paper window belonging to the derelict building. When the way was clear the prince peered through the gap he had made for a moment before climbing inside. "Wait there for a minute, I'll make sure no one is in here," he called back as he moved further into the building.

It was a good idea to make sure they wouldn't be overheard, and probably a better idea for Zuko to check the place out instead of him. He was really beginning to understand how people saw him now, and he really doubted he could get anyone to move by anything other than force, and right now he didn't trust his own fighting capacity. He felt helpless, and the rage at his own helplessness was enough to almost break through the fog of grief he was shrouded in. Almost.

Soon enough Zuko was back, calling out "It's empty." The other boy had come over to the window and was sticking his arm out to help him climb inside, he stared at that arm for a moment, before staring at the boy it belonged to. _Did Zuko really think him that helpless?_ Ignoring the limb he climbed up onto the windowsill and eased himself inside, his shoes clunking against the bare stone floor, flinching at the reek of stale urine.

They stared at each other, he didn't know how to proceed and he suspected the other boy didn't either. They'd found a place to talk, now they just had to do it. Eventually Zuko spoke up "So the Avatar isn't with you?"

There wasn't really any danger in confirming what the other boy knew already, so he answered "No, we got split up."

"But you think he's in Ba Sing Se?" Zuko asked, those golden eyes fixed on him with that intense, uncomfortable stare.

He knew he shouldn't say too much, in fact he shouldn't say anything at all, but he also knew Zuko well enough to know that he would have to answer sooner or later or face being chased around the city. Choosing his words carefully he said "I'm not sure, actually, but we were heading in this direction when it happened, though there's a very good chance he's been and left already; we weren't going to stay long." Zuko frowned at this, his expression becoming contemplative. After a moment he realised that even though the other boy now knew the, admittedly abbreviated, reason he was in the city, he didn't know why the prince was there. "Why are you here?"

"Hmm?" the prince mumbled, distracted "Oh. Uncle and I are here because we're being hunted by my sister and we needed somewhere to hide."

"Your sister?" wasn't his sister the one who could- "Your sister with the _lightening_?"

Zuko winced "That would be her. Azula."

"Why is she hunting you?"

There was a long pause before the prince spoke up again, a pained look on his face "I suppose because father told her to."

"Oh," he didn't know what to say to that, even if he _should _say something to that, but before he had to decide his stomach chose that moment to growl loudly.

"I can wait here if you want to go get something from the cake shop," Zuko said after a long, awkward pause.

"I don't have the money," he replied, the words bitter on his tongue.

There was another long, awkward pause, before Zuko shifted spasmodically, his hand going to his pocket and bringing out a small, _enviable_, pile of coins. "Um-" the prince mumbled "I can buy it for you if you want."

He didn't know how to respond. His face felt hot, he was blushing, part in embarrassment that he had fallen to this, shown himself to be so weak, part because it was the sort of kindness he hadn't experienced since coming to the city, and to experience it at the hands of his _enemy_. However that didn't change the fact that even though he was hungry he didn't want to have something that Toph would have to go without. "I- um- Thanks, I suppose, it's just that. I mean. I can't just..." Zuko drew himself up, defensive, but before the other boy could ruin the moment he was blurting out "No, it's not that. It's just that it doesn't feel right for me to have something like that when Toph..."

"Toph...?" the prince frowned "You said you'd been separated... but you never said you were alone, did you? So... not the Avatar or your sister; Toph must be the Earthbender." Looking satisfied with his own deduction Zuko declared "Well then I'll just buy something for both of you."

"I- I- just." He still didn't know how to handle this, or what he should think about it, but as the other boy was starting to look annoyed again he acquiesced with a simple "Thank you Zuko."

"_Li_," at his blank look the prince clarified "Here my name is _Li_."

He nodded, before replying with a bitter sigh "Xue-Lien."

000

She was beginning to feel clammy, like the fear of the people she was questioning had started to leave a residue on her skin. People were liars, she knew that, she had always known that, but she'd never had so much sympathy for them before. She wanted to find the others, she really, really did- if they found the others they could get out of this wretched place- but she couldn't quite bring herself to get too angry at the people who were getting in her way, because they were just so terrified.

She could feel Gan and Chun-Hue up ahead, waiting for her. The girl was chattering like usual, pointless words spilling from her lips like grains of rice from a split sack; Gan seemed tense- tenser than usual anyway.

"Any luck?" she called out when she was close enough to be heard over the girl. At her words Gan got even tenser, if such a thing was possible, and even Chun-Hue shut up for a moment. "What?" she asked, suspicion clouding her words.

Gan twitched, looked around with what felt like exaggerated casualness, then said softly "Follow me."

He led her into the narrow recess between two tall, thin buildings and stopped to look around again. Chun-Hue, who had followed them, was humming nervously, but at her brother's nod began to chatter even louder and faster than usual "So then mama decided that since we didn't have enough to buy some she was just going to have to make them herself, so she sent Gan and me out to..."

Which was when Gan leaned in as close to her as he could, his mouth hovering a hair's breadth from her ear, and before she could flinch away or hit him or something, whispered "I asked around, asked everyone I knew who might have been in the area and seen the girl you were looking for, and..." he took a deep breath, and she could hear it catch in his throat "well, they don't want me naming names, you have to understand, they don't want to get in trouble, especially not that kind of trouble-"

"What are you saying?" she asked him, almost as quietly as he'd spoken to her.

She could feel him tremble a little as he looked around as surreptitiously as he could, before leaning back down and whispering very quickly "A girl wearing blue and matching your description was seen in the area- they didn't know where she came from or where she was going- but she was noticed because she looked so strange. The really strange thing, the _worrying_ thing is-" he stopped, took another quick look around, before leaning even closer and whispering even quieter "There were men, men that I'm told were agents of the-" he swallowed loudly "_Dai Li-_ going around after she'd left, talking to everyone, saying that they shouldn't tell anyone she'd been there."

"The _Dai Li?_ The _cultural authority_?" she whispered back.

"Shh!" he hissed, looking around again, this time his urgency breaking through any discretion "Don't. Just don't. Don't mention them, ever! Not where someone might hear. Don't mention the war either." Some of the urgency left his tone, replaced with deadly seriousness "I don't know what you're involved in Sheng, what you've gotten _us _involved in, but I don't like it. It's not _safe_."

"What do you mean?"

"Bad things happen, people disappear," he whispered, shaking just slightly, the words catching in his throat "sometimes they come back, but sometimes they _don't_, and even if they come back they aren't always the _same_." He broke off, she could feel him turn away from her for a moment before he leant in again "I can't do this Sheng, it's too dangerous, and I have _responsibilities_. I have to keep my sister safe."

She didn't know what to think, but she couldn't blame him, she knew what it was like to want to make sure someone was safe. Anyway, it had been more of a nuisance than anything else, having to teach him, put up with Chun-Hue, really. A nuisance. "Okay," she said, softly "That's okay."

She moved away from him, pushing past Chun-Hue, who squeaked and stopped her flow of loud, camouflaging chatter. "Bye, bye Sheng," the girl called out, her usually obnoxiously cheerful voice sounding quiet and sad.

"Goodbye Chun-Hue," she replied as she walked away, not letting her senses linger "Goodbye Gan."

000


	24. Part 3, Chapter 5

Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 3, Chapter 5.  
Author: roses_are_a_weed  
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.  
Rating: Mature.

Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.

Warnings for this chapter: Crossdressing and references to general unpleasantness.  
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.  
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.

Notes: I know it's been ages. I am sorry about it all. Between uni, being ill, and being horribly busy with RL I've neither had much time nor motivation to write. Hopefully things will turn around soon. Anyway just to let you know, I really appreciate everyone who reads this and enjoys it. Which goes double for my reviewers.

000

The small, flattened cakes were supposed to contain egg-custard, though from the taste it was more likely flour, sugar, a bit of fat or oil and something to make them yellow. Turmeric perhaps. He shouldn't be surprised, considering the price, but a few months couldn't erase a lifetime of the food he ate being what he was told it was. It didn't matter, he supposed, the things didn't taste too bad, and the Water Tribe boy was eating his, tentatively true, but eating it, so it should be considered some type of victory. Still, this had to be a lesson against buying things five for four of the smallest bronze coins these people used and expecting them to be any good.

In truth he had been somewhat hungry himself, so eating the cake hadn't entirely been because it seemed to make the other boy less nervous if he did so, though that was the main thought that had prompted it. As he finished the last bite it occurred to him that at least he wouldn't feel any sorrow in letting the boy walk off with the other three when they separated.

Perhaps he should ask the boy his name, he couldn't keep thinking of him as the Water Tribe boy, and he knew Xue-Lien was an alias- though he still hadn't asked why the boy was travelling as a girl in the first place. Actually, _that_ would probably be the thing he asked first when they made their way further down the alley and into the derelict building, the long minutes it had taken to actually purchase the cakes wiping away some of the memory of exactly how badly the whole place had smelt.

If- _when _he ever regained his honour and was accepted back into his home he was going to order servants to walk around in front of him carrying sensors full of incense or baskets of fresh, perfumed flowers, just so he never again had to experience to disgusting smells his life seemed to have become full of in recent times. He had also thought of banning tea from his private quarters if it ever happened. He was sick of tea.

He looked back over his shoulder to see how they boy was doing, the _clack clack_ of those strange shoes on the stone of the alleyway as the boy picked his way along being the only clue he was still being followed. The boy had finished his cake and he didn't see the others- so perhaps he had put them in the pocket of that even stranger pair of trousers he had originally mistaken for a skirt, because even though the boy had been eating, the way he had been doing it seemed to have been too cautious for him to have finished the other three cakes in that short amount of time.

There was a part of him that felt like it was in danger of becoming completely overwhelmed with confusion, but he was doing his best to beat that down. It was a weakness he couldn't afford.

Seeing the empty window up ahead he hurried his steps, finding the prospect of standing in a room that stunk like a latrine that had been used by a thousand men with very bad aim, slightly better than that of walking through an alley that smelt like _that_ combined with a very large midden heap, and probably a dead body or two rotting away somewhere down it. He made his way inside quickly and stepped out of the way, waiting for the boy, knowing that the boy didn't want his help and not sure what propriety dictated about offering it again.

He wasn't sure why he expected the boy to falter, to fail at getting through the window, whether it was the obvious cumbersome weight of the skirt, his frail appearance when dressed so, or if it was something that had crawled into his head from the night before. The idea that the boy was vulnerable, needed protecting. He didn't like it, whatever the cause. He needed to be careful, cautious, he needed to stay alert, not get too comfortable; the boy hadn't made any promises about not going to the guards after all.

He watched the boy ease into the room, getting a flash of white socks, black garters wrapped around the boy's legs just under the knee to hold them up, before the trousers were smoothed back down and the boy was looking at him with defiant eyes and flushing cheeks. "Why are you dressed like a girl?" he found himself asking bluntly, before tact could seize his tongue.

The boy froze, studying his face for a long moment before answering, his tone when he did bitter, the words bitten off and precise. "We ran into some trouble with Fire Nation soldiers by the Western Lake." He couldn't imaging the type of trouble that would lead to crossdressing, more importantly, if it had happened near the Western Lake that didn't explain why the boy was still dressed so. Obviously the hole in his story had occurred to the boy as well, because he hurriedly added "Everything since then seems to be conspiring to make sure I'm stuck like this." He didn't know how to respond, what to say, and the awkwardness of his uncertainty led him to make some ugly, noncommittal grunt in the back of his throat and fidget a little, unable to look the boy in the eye. After a moment the boy made his own little noncommittal noise and said "I suppose there's nothing else to say, not really, I don't know why we came back in here." That wasn't quite true, there was many things they could talk about, some a better idea than others, but the words seemed lodged in his throat.

"Yeah, I suppose so..." he trailed off, looking up at the boy, who was now gazing out the wreckage of the window at the piles of muck in the alleyway.

The boy must have sensed him looking, because he turned around and met his gaze, giving him a bitter little smile. "Goodbye _Li_," the boy said, before turning and climbing out the window.

Those shoes clacked against the stone of the alley as the boy landed and began to walk back down to the main street, as he watched him go he realised that he still didn't know the boy's name.

"Goodbye..." he murmured.

000

No one had stolen the cart. That was a good thing, a thing he should be thankful for. Not only had no one stolen the cart but he now had something, a rather bland and cheap tasting something, but _something_, and sweet on top of that, to pad out dinner. A something to give Toph to make up a little for his failure at taking care of her.

His skin was still crawling, awkwardness and embarrassment making his flesh prickle uncomfortably. It was the be expected, considering his situation, his clothing, and then spending time with and feeling grateful to an _enemy_- and adding to that Zuko's usual lack of social graces as well as the other boy's strange, almost _careful,_ behaviour towards him. To be honest he was all rather confused and was actually, not looking forward to, but almost _relieved_ at the thought of returning to the restaurant and making deliveries, because thinking about Zuko was just adding to the headache he could feel building at his temples. Zuko was more complicated than he wanted to deal with currently.

Maybe there were things they should have said to each other, maybe he should have made the other boy promise not to seek out Aang, maybe he should have threatened to go got the guards if Zuko and his uncle didn't leave the city, maybe. Except the only thing he could think of was leaving it alone. Zuko's presence didn't seem to be hurting anyone, in fact it had saved him, and part of him felt too grateful, too _thankful_ to Zuko for the night before to want to get the guards involved. Part of him, a part that he wasn't too proud of, also felt too possessive of the other boy's presence, a thing he knew and no one else did, a secret from the horrible people in this horrible place. Not to mention that Zuko actually knew _him_. Not Xue-Lien.

When had he become so pathetic?

Suddenly the air was cut by the high pitched wail of a child in distress. He froze for a second, blood running cold, before he whirled around to find the child and rescue it, images of other children, children who looked like broken dolls, flashing behind his eyes. He could see nothing wrong, no distress or fear in the eyes of the locals, nothing. Eventually his gaze landed on a girl of about six, crying her eyes out as her brother threatened to rip the head of a dirty doll made of mismatched cloth with half its hair missing. As he watched a thin, careworn woman who seemed to be their mother snatched the doll from the boy and handed it back to the girl, her hand raised as if she was going to slap her son across the face. The woman hesitated, before dropping her hand and walking away, her face expressionless. The children cried out like distressed kittens and ran after her, falling quietly into step behind their mother. He watched them until they disappeared into the crowd, his hands shaking, a cold sweat soaking into his clothes.

He needed to sit down.

He sank back against the wall of a dingy shop, guiding the cart to rest beside him so he could keep an easy eye on it. He couldn't live like this, it was impossible. This whole city was impossible. He was sick of being hungry, frightened, tired and sore. He needed to find the others so they could get out. Escape. He let his head tilt back until it rested against stone, staring up at the cloudless sky through a hole in the canvas awning that extended from over the door to the corner of the building. Breathe in. Breathe out. He felt ill, scared, the sweat drying uncomfortably on his clothes. When they found the others, when they escaped, he was going home. This had more than proved that this war had no place for those that weren't Benders.

000


End file.
